Close Calls in L.A. Sky Dip by 47% : Air safety: By contrast, the number of near collisions over Orange County increased 125% in the first 10 months of 1989.

While Orange County experienced a 125% increase in pilot-reported near collisions in 1989, the skies above Los Angeles County saw a sharp drop in such incidents, according to Federal Aviation Administration documents.

The computerized list showed that pilots reported 18 near midair collisions in the skies over Orange County through Nov. 5, 1989, up from eight during all of 1988.

By contrast, the number of near midair collisions in Los Angeles County declined from 36 incidents during the first 10 months of 1988 to 19 during the same period in 1989--a 47% decrease, according to FAA reports obtained by The Times.

Bill Williams, manager of the Flight Standards Division of the FAA’s Western Pacific Region, attributed the drop in Los Angeles County to an intensive education program for both professional and private pilots and the adoption of new visual flight rule charts.

“We talked to air carrier pilots about where they are likely to find general aviation operations,” Williams said. “And, we talked to general aviation pilots about where they can expect air carrier operations.”

Also, he said new charts--adopted recently--clearly show private pilots the routes to use in flying into the Los Angeles Basin. Previous charts were complicated by flight information showing general aviation pilots where they should not fly.

The FAA list was compiled by the Office of Safety Analysis in Washington.

It showed that, statewide, the number of incidents reported by pilots dropped 36.5%, from 170 in all of 1988 to 108 through Nov. 5, 1989. The data for the period after Nov. 5, will not be available until next week, but it is unlikely to change the established pattern, FAA officials said. Referring to the dramatic increase reported for Orange County, a veteran airline pilot said there are simply too many additional aircraft using the air space each year.

“You have all of the ingredients for a tremendous number of midair collisions,” said Dick Russell, a veteran airline pilot who serves on the safety committee of the Washington-based Air Line Pilots Assn.

Russell said the number of near midair collisions is vasty understated because pilots do not report all of them.

But other pilots and air traffic controllers said the increase in near midair collisions is puzzling because their personal experience suggested that incidents were declining. They also cautioned that the public should not view the numbers literally, because the number of reported near midair collisions often swings substantially from year to year.

For example, pilots reported 28 near midair collisions over Orange County in 1987, but only 17 in 1986.

Many of the incidents have not been verified, FAA officials said, because the second aircraft involved could not be identified and the pilot of that plane was not interviewed.

In San Diego County, the FAA reported 10 near midair collisions in 1988. Four of those involved military aircraft, including sophisticated F-16 Navy fighters. The county has several Navy and Marine airfields, including the famed Top Gun fighter pilot’s school at Miramar Naval Air Station.

Figures available for the first 11 months of 1989 show a 50% reduction in reported incidents. According to FAA figures, four of the five near misses reported during that period involved military aircraft, including a June 15 incident in which a KC-135 tanker came within 2,550 feet of a DC-10 passenger jet, while flying at 28,000 feet.

Bob Vaughn, air traffic manager for San Diego terminal approach radar control (TRACON), credits the relatively small number of incidents in the county to a tough policy that requires approaching aircraft to get clearance from air traffic controllers before they can venture into local airspace.

The San Diego policy uses a tactical control area (TCA). Orange County did not have a similar policy until this month, when air traffic controllers instituted the airport radar service area (ARSA), Vaughn said.

“Under TCA, entry into airspace requires air traffic control authorization,” Vaughn said. “The TCA uses more stringent separation criteria for airplanes. . . . I don’t really know that we did anything different in 1989, other than we also have a very active pilot education program.”

Some officials cast doubt on the validity of the data.

“I don’t really have an explanation for the reported increase,” said James H. Panter, air traffic manager at the Coast Terminal Approach Radar Control Center in El Toro. That center handles aircraft in the Orange County-Long Beach area. “Nor, by the way, does it sound correct. I haven’t noticed any significant increases.”

Panter said the number of pilot reports varies year to year in part because sometimes pilots are more prone to notify the FAA during a major safety push, or right after a disaster such as the Cerritos air crash in 1986.

“Many near midair collisions aren’t really what they seem to be,” Panter said. “If two pilots flying under visual flight rules come close together but one avoids the other, they did exactly what they were supposed to do and nothing happened.”

In many instances of reported near misses, Panter added, one pilot’s subjective view of how close the two aircraft came together is all the FAA has to go on. Many aircraft flying under visual flight rules are not in contact with air traffic controllers, he said, and thus cannot even be warned that they are too close together.

“We don’t know what (radio) frequency they’re on, and unless they have a transponder, we don’t know their altitude either,” Panter said.

He said the FAA uses the near midair collision data by placing red pins on a map to show areas that seem to have clusters of incidents. Such clusters, he said, may indicate the need for an air safety meeting to advise pilots of a particular problem.

“Otherwise, it’s hard to get a handle on this data,” Panter said. “It should not be taken literally.”

Randy Moore, an air traffic controller at the Coast Radar Control Center and immediate past president of the local National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. chapter, said the increase reported for Orange County skies may be a result of airline pilots campaigning for creation of a new safety zone around John Wayne Airport that was put into effect earlier this month.

“Those figures just support the ARSA (airport radar service area),” Moore said.”

Moore said the controllers’ group would like to see a terminal control area covering Orange County and requiring pilots to obtain entry permission from an air traffic controller.

“We’ve done some figuring, and as far as the (controllers’) union goes, we feel if we had a TCA it would cut down 94% of the near midair collisions.”

The National Transportation Safety Board last year issued a report strongly critical of the Coast Radar Control Center for being understaffed and using outmoded equipment and facilities.

The FAA, however, disputed the findings and pointed to several improvements that had been made at the facility and a recruitment program that has been attracting additional controllers.

In 1994, the Coast Radar Control Center is scheduled to be merged into a new facility near San Diego that will handle the entire Southern California area.

Last July, officials of the federal General Accounting Office reported that the skies above Orange County ranked seventh in the nation in near midair collisions involving air carriers during the previous three years.

Panter--who flies a small Cessna--said that the Coast Radar Control Center has been handling record numbers of aircraft flights--about 2,000 a day, about double the workload of five years ago, but he said that not all of the increase is due to air carriers, which must stay in contact with his facility.

Still, Michael C. Church, president of the Orange County Airport Assn., an influential pilots’ group, questioned whether the increase in incidents reported for Orange County between 1988 and 1989 might not be heavily influenced by numbers of air carrier operations and the subjective nature of such incident reports.

Church, a flight instructor at John Wayne Airport, said that pilot reports are based much more “on opinion than actual fact.”

The statistics should be used to educate pilots about problem areas, he said, but not for more restrictive measures that may be merely good public relations gestures.

Times staff writers John Kendall in Los Angeles and H. G. Reza in San Diego contributed to this story.

REPORTED NEAR-COLLISIONS Chart shows the number of aircraft near-collisions reported by pilots for years indicated. The figures, from selected Southland counties and from throughout the state, are for the first 10 months of each year.*

COUNTY 1988 1989 % CHANGE Los Angeles County 36 19 -47% Orange County 8 18 +125% San Diego 8 5 -38% Statewide 154 108 -30%

*Note: Latest figures available for 1989 are for first 10 months only. Similar figures are used for 1988 for comparison purposes.

Source: Federal Aviation Administration

1989 NEAR-COLLISION REPORTS IN THE COUNTY

1989 Complaining Offending How close Day Location Aircraft Aircraft (Feet) Jan. 18 Santa Ana Passenger jet Light plane 180 Jan. 22 Seal Beach Passenger jet unknown 300 Mar. 4 Laguna Beach Passenger jet Military 1,077 helicopter Mar. 10 Garden Grove Civilian Light plane 158 helicopter Mar. 11 Seal Beach Passenger jet unknown 2,508 Apr. 13 Seal Beach Commuter jet Commuter jet 2,400 Apr. 22 Seal Beach Passenger jet Light plane 700 May 4 Huntington Light plane unknown 101 Beach May 8 Anaheim Hills Light plane Passenger jet 200 May 13 Newport Beach Passenger jet unknown 500 June 23 Huntington Commuter jet Light plane 2,320 Beach June 30 Costa Mesa Passenger jet Light plane 71 July 19 San Clemente Commuter jet Commuter jet 5004 Aug. 8 Garden Grove Commuter jet unknown 200 Aug. 26 Seal Beach Passenger jet Light plane 150 Oct. 6 Huntington Beach Passenger jet Light plane 269 Beach Oct. 6 Newport Beach SW3 unknown 200 Nov. 2 Santa Ana Commuter jet Light plane 600

1989 Altitude Day (Feet) Jan. 18 100 Jan. 22 2,000 Mar. 4 5,800 Mar. 10 3,500 Mar. 11 4,000 Apr. 13 2,400 Apr. 22 6,000 May 4 4,500 May 8 4,500 May 13 1,300 June 23 5,000 June 30 500 July 19 8,000 Aug. 8 7,500 Aug. 26 1,600 Oct. 6 1,600 Oct. 6 3,000 Nov. 2 1,900

Orange County Total:18

Source: Federal Aviation Administration NEAR COLLISIONS

Number of incidents in Orange County skies from 1985-89.

1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Los Angeles County 45 50 59 38 19 Orange County 16 17 28 8 18 San Diego 20 13 19 10 5 Statewide 188 203 261 170 108

Source: Federal Aviation Administration Near Collisions Number of incidents in Orange County skies from 1985’-89. 1985: 16 ‘86: 17 ‘87: 28 ‘88: 8 ‘89: 18 Source: Federal Aviation Administration