Pilots to Fight Runway Plan for El Toro Airport

Orange County planners were deluged Tuesday with demands to answer thousands of questions about plans to build an airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station--including one from a powerful airline pilots association warning that its members are prepared to boycott an El Toro airport because of safety concerns.

The Air Line Pilots Assn., representing 44,000 commercial pilots nationwide, said it endorses an El Toro airport but will fight the county’s plan to have takeoffs to the east on existing runways that slope upward and face high terrain as “suspect” and “ill advised.”

“To ensure clarity of our view, it should be understood that ALPA will steadfastly oppose the use of El Toro as a commercial airport if takeoffs to the east . . . are a condition of its use as such a facility,” Capt. Jon Russell, Western Pacific regional safety chairman for the pilots union, said in a letter to county planners that echoes their long-standing concerns.

Al Pregler of Fullerton, the union’s retired safety chairman, said the letter means pilots may refuse to fly.

“The pilot in control is like the captain of a ship--if he doesn’t think it’s safe, he just won’t fly. If they are told to fly [to the east], they just won’t do it,” he said.

Orange County officials and Peter Melia, a Federal Aviation Administration official overseeing the agency’s study of a proposed El Toro airport, downplayed the union’s concerns. The FAA, they said, is the final arbiter on what would be safe at an El Toro airport.

“We believe we’re right,” responded Alan Murphy, a facilities director at John Wayne Airport who has been working on the county’s proposal to build an airport at El Toro when the military abandons the base by mid-1999. “We believe we can fly off that runway.”

It’s the latest example of the pilots union finding itself at odds with the Federal Aviation Administration and others as it fights to ensure the strictest safety standards possible on behalf of its members. The union says it has safety concerns about many California airports, including John Wayne, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International and Lindbergh Field, the San Diego airport.

“The FAA has established the safety standards that airports must meet and ALPA thinks the standards should be far greater--that’s what they are all about,” Melia said, adding that the FAA must balance such interests against what is reasonable. He likened it to someone insisting motorists drive military tanks to ensure safety.

The FAA expects to offer its comments on the county’s study by early November, he said.

The Air Line Pilots Assn. letter said the takeoff problem could be solved by moving the runways--a costly move that could send more aviation traffic over Irvine. The letter underscored the fears of Irvine residents opposed to an El Toro airport.

Residents believe the county is misleading about the easterly takeoffs and that eventually the county will change course and force planes over the city.

“I like what they are saying, but I don’t like their solutions,” Irvine Mayor Mike Ward said of the association’s letter. “Instead of trying to make El Toro work, let’s work on building an airport someplace else and make the whole thing work.”

The association’s letter comes at the close of a comment period on a draft environmental impact report studying potential base reuse plans.

The county is considering three alternatives: a passenger-cargo airport, a cargo-general aviation facility and a non-airport option that would turn the base over to business, residential, recreational, tourist attractions and other uses.

County officials on Tuesday said they have been flooded by more than 1,500 documents so far. They were arriving too quickly on Tuesday--the deadline--to get an accurate count, said spokeswoman Kathleen Campini Chambers.

The Air Transport Assn., representing major airlines serving Southern California, said in its letter to the county that members are concerned that efforts to limit noise at an El Toro airport would restrict flights, and urged that costly airport development keep pace with--and not exceed--passenger and cargo demands.

The association also said it would be too costly to have operations at both El Toro and John Wayne. The county said it intends to close John Wayne to passenger service if an El Toro airport is developed.

In some ways, the last-minute onslaught of comments on an El Toro airport was by design, opponents said. The idea is to give Orange County officials thousands of complex, technical questions that by law must be answered before the process can move forward, said Larry Agran, a former Irvine mayor.

“It will derail itself,” predicted Agran, who formed Project ‘99, a group fighting an El Toro airport. “They’re going to be buried in questions.”

Project ’99 filed more than 140 pages containing more than 1,500 questions, Agran said. South County joined forces to fight an airport estimate their hired consultants filed several hundred questions too, Ward said. Aliso Viejo residents working together paid $20,000 to have an aviation consultant to craft their response.

Ward and others say they wonder whether the county can handle the questions and still meet its strict timetable. County officials hope to answer questions and include comments in the finalized report by early November to keep the Board of Supervisors on track to decide the fate of the military base by mid-December.

“We think we can do it,” said Campini Chambers, the spokeswoman for the county’s El Toro project.

“Frankly, I don’t see how they can,” Ward said. “To legitimately respond to all the comments, they are going to have to work 24 hours a day for the next six weeks. I hope they don’t do it.”