FAA Calls Parking Garage at San Diego Airport an ‘Obstruction,’ Warns Pilots

The Federal Aviation Administration has warned pilots of jumbo jets landing at Lindbergh Field not to rely on the airport’s landing light system because it could lead them to crash into the corner of a six-story parking garage near the airport, according to an FAA report made public on Thursday.

Despite that warning, the FAA report concludes that the building, located 710 feet from the start of the runway, does not pose a safety hazard to landing aircraft other than to the jumbo jets. The structure is classified as an obstruction, which means that pilots should be aware of its existence.

The report also said that a new, more sophisticated visual landing system scheduled for installation at Lindbergh Field in the fall will be able to guide jumbo jet pilots over the parking garage with more than enough room to spare between their wheels and the structure. In the meantime pilots of such jets should depend primarily on their on-board instruments to negotiate landings.

The FAA’s conclusion of no safety hazard angered San Diego Unified Port District Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer, who has been among a number of local officials who have called for the reduction or razing of the garage. The port district runs the airport.

‘A Plane Is Going to Hit’

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that one day a plane is going to hit that building,” Wolfsheimer said. “It’s not going to be on my watch. . . . I know the FAA can live with themselves if there is a terrible accident there. They’re 3,000 miles away. But I couldn’t live with myself.

“We’re fooling with people’s lives here,” added Wolfsheimer. “Doesn’t that thing look dangerous to you? I don’t care what the FAA says . . . I think people’s lives are at risk with that thing.”

Wolfsheimer said he will begin immediately to initiate discussions between port commissioners and the San Diego City Council to see if the public agencies can buy and remove the top floors of the garage.

The FAA report issued Thursday is the latest chapter in a controversy over the garage. The building, the northwest corner of which measures 93.9 feet above sea level, was approved for construction by the FAA in 1984 and opened for business as a satellite parking garage for Lindbergh in May, 1986.

Pilots Angered

Angered that the FAA did not confer with it first, the Air Line Pilots Assn. wrote to the agency early this year to warn that the parking structure was an “accident waiting to happen.”

A pilot flying a 747 and approaching Lindbergh at the minimally accepted angle would not clear the garage, the ALPA warned. At the same angle, the association said, an L-1011 would clear the structure by only 1.8 feet and a DC-10 by 3.8 feet.

Each week, 14 L-1011s, 47 DC-10s and two 747s land at Lindbergh, airport officials said.

In May, the FAA answered complaints from the commercial pilots by saying that a study of the garage showed it did not pose a safety hazard. But the federal agency did agree to spend $20,000 to upgrade the visual landing system at Lindbergh.