Runway Plan May Fuel Bid for Takeoffs Toward East

A runway overhaul scheduled for the fall at Burbank Airport may fuel a homeowners’ campaign to force the airport to resume takeoffs toward the east, a homeowner leader said Monday.

The FAA, for what it cites as safety reasons, bans such takeoffs, but airport neighbors have advocated them as a way of more equitably spreading the noise from departing jetliners.

The project would shut the airport’s north-south runway for more than a month, requiring commercial jets to use the shorter, east-west runway, Airport Services Director Tom Greer said, discussing the plan for the first time publicly on Monday.

But that also would force jetliners to take off and land toward each other, with all the airport’s operations concentrated over neighborhoods of North Hollywood directly west of the runway, Greer said.

Criticism Predicted

Some airport critics said they find the prospect of jets taking off and landing in opposite directions on the same runway so alarming that they don’t believe it will happen.

“If they’re angry now about flights taking off to the south, you can imagine how homeowners are going to feel when they take off directly to the west and throttle up directly over their homes,” said Marc Litchman, administrative assistant for Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City).

Berman is the sponsor of a bill, supported by East Valley homeowner groups, that would require the airlines to direct more takeoffs over the east once the FAA ban is lifted, so that noise would be distributed more evenly around the airport.

Litchman said he believes the closure of the more-used runway will force the FAA to lift the ban in order to avoid the specter of aircraft landing and taking off in opposite directions.

“The thought of westerly takeoffs never crossed my mind,” Litchman said. “It’s crazy,” he said.

Tom Paterson, president of the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn., agreed.

“We’re going to have to make an issue out of the safety aspect of it, that it’s not satisfactory to depart the traffic off the west runway,” he said.

Closed in 1979

Paterson said homeowners protested at a congressional hearing when the airport closed the north-south runway for repairs in 1979. On that occasion, he said, the FAA agreed to allow more eastern takeoffs.

“That was forced on them because there was such a stink made over safety,” he said. “If necessary, we’ll go back to Congressman Berman and have another hearing.”

Some homeowner groups and government officials had been privately briefed on the implications of the runway construction, but it was discussed publicly for the first time Monday when the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority adopted its 1987-1988 budget.

Airport officials told the agency that the entire north-south runway would be closed to commercial jet operations for about 35 days in the fall during reconstruction of its southern end.

About 90% of all commercial jetliner traffic now uses that runway and will have to be rerouted.

Didn’t Seek Lifting of Ban

Greer said he had notified the FAA about the project, but had not requested that it lift the ban on eastward takeoffs, in force since March, 1986.

Although only a small percentage of departing planes were taking off to the east, the FAA banned all such flights in a dispute with the airport over the progress on projects to remove obstacles from around the runways.

The FAA contends that the eastward takeoff route is not as safe as others because the departing aircraft must thread a narrow path between the Verdugo Mountains and the flight path of planes landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

The FAA said the ban will be in effect until the airport replaces its existing terminal building, which is closer to one runway than regulations allow.