Local News in Brief : Rock Sign to Warn Noisy LAX Aircraft

The El Segundo City Council has decided to create a sign from rocks to send a message to noisy aircraft that take off from Los Angeles International Airport and turn over the city before reaching the coastline.

Council members voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to spend $4,500 to buy enough white decorative rock to lay a sign--visible from the air--that will read: “Unsafe Area For Jets.” The message will be spelled out in 12-foot letters.

The council decided not to create the sign, however, until the Los Angeles Department of Airports, which has a noise-abatement policy forbidding early turns, gets one last chance to meet with El Segundo officials and come up with a solution to the problem.

“The intent of the sign is to make the public nervous,” said El Segundo Councilman Jim Clutter, “so that the airlines who are sensitive to the issue will put pressure on the airport to do something.”

Dick Russell, a pilot and the Los Angeles spokesman for the Airline Pilots Assn., said El Segundo’s decision to lay the rock sign “sounds like a high school or college prank, very sophomoric.” Although early turns do occur from time to time, pilots make every effort to avoid making them, he said.