LAX Rated Most Dangerous in Nation in Poll of Pilots

Los Angeles International Airport was rated the most dangerous in the country by pilots responding to a newspaper survey because the potential for mid-air collisions is considered great.

Lindbergh Field in San Diego also was named among the nation’s five least safe in survey results published in Monday’s editions of the Atlanta Constitution. The Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, built in 1974, was rated as the nation’s safest.

The newspaper, in February and March, polled 2,200 pilots who hold air transportation certificates, asking them to list in no particular order the five safest and least safe airports in the country. The paper said 1,360 pilots responded, with many adding written comments.

Although the pilots said it was a tricky task to rate one airport against another, more than a third of the respondents said LAX is an undesirable place to fly in to because of the heavy air traffic over the Los Angeles Basin.

“Any airport that mixes light aircraft and commercial jet aircraft is less safe in direct proportion to the number of light aircraft using the facility,” one pilot wrote. “Light aircraft are difficult to see and often do not show up on air traffic control radar.”

The rating drew rebuttals from the Los Angeles Department of Airports, the Federal Aviation Administration, general-aviation interest groups and pilot groups, who all said that LAX is no more unsafe than any other airport in the United States.

“LAX is taking a bum rap over a hysteria that has developed in recent years (over reported near-collisions),” said jetliner pilot Barry Schiff, who is also a spokesman for general-aviation interests. “I think the facts really do not justify the conclusion . . . that there is so much general aviation over L.A.”

“If it was not safe, I wouldn’t fly in that environment,” added United Air Lines pilot Dick Russell, the local spokesman for the 43,000-member Air Line Pilots Assn.

For years, pilots have complained about the Southland’s crowded skies. But their words did not get serious attention until the Aug. 31, 1986, collision over Cerritos of an Aeromexico jetliner and a Piper Cherokee in which 82 people were killed.

A reported near-collision between a jetliner and a small plane last year near Santa Monica prompted FAA officials to close a “visual-flight corridor” that private aircraft had used to fly over LAX. However, several months later, the FAA relented in the face of opposition and reopened the route.

The FAA reported that in 1987 there were more near-collisions in California’s skies than in any other state. Pilots reported 257 such incidents over California--nearly a quarter of all such reports nationwide.

Since 1974, the International Federation of Air Pilots Assn. has given LAX its poorest rating--a “black star”--for requiring over-water approaches after midnight, and for hazardous flying conditions during Santa Ana wind conditions. LAX, the nation’s third-busiest airport, is the only one in the nation to have such a rating.

Lindbergh Field was the smallest airport in terms of traffic to make either list. One pilot said the steep approach over Balboa Park and downtown San Diego is like “landing in the bottom of a shoe box.”

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the nation’s second-busiest behind Atlanta, stood out for making both the five safest and five most dangerous lists. While receiving criticism for the heavy air traffic, it also received praise for its controllers’ ability to deal well with the combined pressures of heavy traffic and winter storms.

Dallas-Ft. Worth, built on flat cattle-grazing land, was praised as the best airport because of its six long runways--one stretching to 11,388 feet--and sophisticated approach aids.

FROM THE COCKPIT

THE FIVE LEAST SAFE

Los Angeles International Airport.

National Airport outside Washington, D.C.

LaGuardia Airport in New York.

O’Hare International Airport in Chicago (also listed as one of the safest).

(Tie) Lindbergh Field in San Diego and Stapleton International Airport in Denver.

THE FIVE SAFEST

Dallas-Ft. Worth Regional Airport.

O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport.

Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.

Seattle/Tacoma International Airport.

Source: Atlanta Constitution