Overlap of Flights Cuts Aerial Safety
Did you know that Long Beach Airport is 3 1/2 miles south of the center line between the Cerritos crash site and Los Angeles International Airport? How such marvelous plans could have been made not too long ago to make Long Beach into a major airport and be located right in the middle of the Los Angeles International Airport’s right of way, or Terminal Control Area, is not easy for me to understand.
TCAs have been created around major airports to protect the approach and departure of airlines. Long Beach Airport has no TCA, and 99% of all its departures fly north toward the center of the Los Angeles Airport’s TCA. It also supports about 900 flights of small planes that are not closely controlled.
Aren’t approaches and departures from LAX affected by this congestion? And would not the consideration of safety preferably reduce flight congestion from elsewhere in a major airport’s TCA?
--LOU ROBILLARD
Long Beach
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