History of Plane Takeoffs Misstated

* Les S. Arian’s letter (“Politics Caused Rerouting of Plane Departures,” Oct. 24) misstates history regarding runway use at Burbank Airport.

True, there were departures from Burbank Airport in the past to the east and southeast.

But former Burbank FAA tower chief Gerald Walton has said repeatedly that he and he alone canceled southeast departures from Burbank in 1984 while he was manager of the FAA air traffic center in Palmdale. He said the increasing volume of LAX arrivals from the east made it too difficult to direct Burbank departures through that air space. He further stated: “The pilots have the right and responsibility to the passengers and aircraft to select the safest runway.”

As for the four months in 1979 when all departures from Burbank were from the east runway, many aircraft took significant weight penalties in order to use the shorter runway, hardly a condition to perpetuate.

Arian implies that the Airport Authority took away airline options for east departures, when the record clearly shows the FAA did so in 1986. Assuming a new terminal is built at Burbank, freeing the east runway for use by commercial jets, the Airport Authority will not interfere in any way with pilots who choose to use that runway. Very few of them will do so.

If Arian wants to find the politics in the Burbank Airport debate, he need look no further than homeowner association pressure on elected officials. Ascribing runway use to politics is scapegoat thinking and is flatly contradicted by the record.

THOMAS E. GREER

Burbank

Greer is director of airport services at Burbank Airport.