City Has Some Big Words for Errant Jets

El Segundo has delivered a holiday greeting to errant pilots who fly noisy aircraft over the community after taking off from nearby Los Angeles International Airport.

Following through on an earlier threat, city officials this week erected giant, plywood letters--visible from the air--that read “UNSAFE AREA FOR JETS.”

The idea is to unnerve passengers and deter pilots who snub airport policy and fly over the community of 15,000.

Floodlights will illuminate the letters at night.

El Segundo officials said the decision to erect the sign came after they met with airport and Federal Aviation Administration officials in recent weeks and received no guarantees that a solution to the noise problem would be forthcoming.

“I just think they are shrugging it off,” said Councilman Jim Clutter, who spearheaded the effort to alert pilots to the city’s displeasure. Other messages considered by El Segundo officials included “Turn at the Coastline, Stupid,” and “Most Careless Airline of the Month”--with the name of an airline following.

Clutter estimated that up to 20 jets every day turn too quickly to the south after taking off from L.A. International, putting them over El Segundo.

The FAA has said that it instructs pilots to get at least to the edge of the ocean, beyond the LAX runways, before they turn. And, according to LAX officials, airport policy similarly is that pilots wait until they reach the shoreline before they turn.

The airport has even erected its own large, lighted signs on the two runways used for takeoffs that read: “After Takeoff No Turn Before Coastline.”

Airport spokesman Tom Winfrey said Thursday he did not know if El Segundo’s sign had provoked any reaction from pilots or passengers. Work on the sign, which is on a hillside owned by El Segundo, was completed Tuesday.

As for the airport itself, “Our position really is we have no comment on their sign,” Winfrey said.

But Dick Russell, the Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Airline Pilot’s Assn., said he considers the El Segundo sign “rather sophomoric.” Russell said he got a good view of it Thursday when he took off from LAX on a trip to San Diego.

Russell said pilots make every effort to avoid early turns, but that a few could occur from time to time if winds cause an aircraft to “drift,” or if a pilot attempts to avoid wind turbulence over the ocean.

Russell said he does not believe the sign will have much of an impact on pilots. Their passengers, he predicted, will probably shrug it off.

“They are going to think it is a prank, that somebody has put a sign up there like graffiti,” he said.