San Diego

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday agreed to appeal a Federal Aviation Administration decision that the six-story Laurel Travel Center is not a hazard to aircraft landing at Lindbergh Field.

The council voted 7-0, with council members Abbe Wolfsheimer and Wes Pratt absent, to ask the FAA to consider for a fourth time its decision that the building at 1025 W. Laurel St. is merely an obstruction--and not a hazard--to incoming aircraft.

Located just 710 feet from Lindbergh’s only runway, the Laurel Travel Center has been called “an accident waiting to happen” by the Air Line Pilots Assn. Large aircraft would have little or no room to clear the building while descending into Lindbergh at the minimally approved angle, the group claims.

The pilots’ group has said that, at that angle, the landing gear of a 747 aircraft would not clear the building, an L-1011 would clear the roof by 1.8 feet and a DC-10 would have 3.8 feet of clearance.

In its most recent review of the building in May, the FAA reiterated its position that the building is not a hazard, but agreed to install a more sophisticated landing system to guide pilots approaching Lindbergh.