Low-Flight Tests Raise Concern for Ship Safety

The latest version of the Navy’s proposal to fly Lear jets straight at a Silver Strand Beach radar facility has raised new safety concerns from the California Coastal Commission and a harbor safety committee.

The commission, which signed off on the much-debated plan last year, said it may reconsider its support and has called a hearing next month to review the proposal. Under the Navy’s plan to test its weapons defense systems, planes would cruise toward the five-story building as low as 100 feet from the water’s surface to simulate missile strikes on warships.

Before the Navy revised its proposal last year, the plan called for halting flights when vessels were traveling in the area. The Navy now proposes to fly the planes with boats in transit but says the aircraft would not come closer than 500 feet to the vessels.

“We consider this a drastic difference in risk,” said Carl Dingler, a harbor pilot and member of the Port Hueneme Harbor Safety Committee, who recently wrote the Navy asking for a more extensive environmental review of the proposal.

A new Navy environmental review document released Feb. 29 concludes that the flights would pose no threat to human lives, shipping or the environment. The 30-day period for the public to read and comment on the document ends March 31.

“We are not trying to stop the Navy from doing anything,” Dingler said, referring to his request that the Navy prepare an “environmental impact statement,” which is a more detailed document than the one submitted. “We want to assess this risk. We want to see how it will affect the safety of vessels coming in and out of Port Hueneme.”

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Navy officials Wednesday said the planes would not interfere with ship traffic, adding that the 500-foot “safety bubble” meets Federal Aviation Administration regulations. “This is safe,” said Letitia Austin, a Navy spokeswoman.

The Navy is seeking a special airspace permit from the FAA to perform the testing. Once the public comment period on the environmental document ends, the Navy will forward the study to the Pentagon before submitting it to the FAA for review in May.

The Navy last August revised its original testing proposal after widespread protest by many of the 6,000 Silver Strand and beach area residents. Instead of using fighter jets at speeds approaching 600 mph, the Navy agreed to fly only civilian Lear jets at speeds no greater than 375 mph. Under the new proposal, the planes would begin turning back toward the ocean 1 1/2 miles from the shore.

The Coastal Commission last September told the FAA that it had no objections to the Navy’s modified proposal. But the commission on March 14 wrote a letter to the agency saying it had new concerns about the revised proposal and might suspend its approval.

The commission, which plans and regulates development along the California coast, will hold a public hearing at its regularly scheduled meeting in Carmel on April 9 to determine if the flights would affect activities including boating and fishing.

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“The issue is the planes having effects on recreation in terms of noise and safety, which they probably will have,” said Mark Delaplaine, the commission’s federal consistency supervisor.

The commission’s disapproval of the proposal would not automatically kill it but could affect the FAA’s decision to grant the Navy a special airspace permit.

Beach area residents and some private pilots argue the Navy’s latest environmental document downplays safety risks.

“This area here is a magnet for endangered species like the brown pelican and other birds,” said Vickie Finan, a 40-year-old Silver Strand resident. “If a bird goes through a windshield at high speeds, the plane could crash. Even if it crashed into the ocean, it would still create a fuel spill.”

But the Navy said the risk of planes colliding with birds is minimal. According to Navy statistics collected for an area that includes Point Mugu and the radar facility, only about 1% of the bird strikes recorded occurred while planes were flying at low altitudes.

“Based on statistics and altitude, we have found that there is not a safety problem there,” Austin said.

The Navy’s document essentially rules out the possibility of conducting the flights somewhere else. The document said the Silver Strand site is unique and that the Navy could not perform the testing using a ship at sea.

The document said that even if the Navy found another site, it would cost about $48 million to relocate the equipment.

But residents say the Navy should perform the testing in a less populated area despite costs or inconveniences because they believe the plan could endanger lives.

“I just believe the Navy has other alternatives,” Finan said. “I just believe this could be done in another place.”

FYI

The Navy’s Special Use Airspace Supplemental Environmental Assessment document is available to the public for review at Oxnard’s public library, Port Hueneme’s public library and the clerk of the board’s office at the Ventura County Government Center until March 31.