Orientation of El Toro Runway Could Change

Orange County officials, meeting Monday with representatives of the country’s largest pilots union, left open the possibility that flights at a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station could take off from a north-south runway rather than the currently planned east-west runway, officials said.

Although no decision was reached on which runway would best serve a commercial airport at El Toro, pilots representatives said the county did not dismiss their proposal to use a north-south runway for takeoffs, which could send more planes over Irvine, Lake Forest and Tustin.

Jon Russell, the local representative of the Air Line Pilots Assn., who organized a meeting with officials of the county, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Transport Assn., said they discussed the pilots’ safety concerns that using the military base’s Runway 7, the east-west runway, for takeoffs would send planes toward the mountains with downwind pressure.

But the alternative, using the north-south runway, could increase the number of airplanes flying over cities.

The county’s proposal currently calls for 70% of commercial flights to take off from the east-west runway. Although county officials denied there are any plans to change that, they did acknowledge the need to address the safety concerns voiced by the two largest pilots unions in the country, the Air Line Pilots Assn. and the Allied Pilots Assn.

“The airlines and the pilots have issues to discuss,” said Michael Gatzke, an attorney representing the county, who attended the meeting. “We wanted to hear their input, and we wanted to hear their concerns. Part of our responsibility is to look further at all the details and at least be asking all the questions” about the runway issue.

Russell said county officials at the meeting, their first with local representatives of the pilots unions, were open to suggestions on runway configurations.

“We agreed that we were going to work together on this project,” Russell said. “They have not totally abandoned the idea of taking off from Runway 7, but they are looking at different options.”

Two weeks ago, county officials met in Washington with national representatives of the Air Line Pilots Assn. to discuss general airport plans, including the runway safety concerns.

The national pilots representatives then met separately with officials from the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the agency that is overseeing the non-aviation plan for the Marine base.

The pilots “told us the county had discussed an alternate airport plan that they were developing,” said Richard Dixon, chairman of the authority, who attended the meeting. “All of us just started firing one question after another. We shouldn’t be hearing about this from them. We should be hearing about this from the county.”

But county officials vehemently deny that they have made any decisions about changes in takeoffs or runway configurations.

“Our representatives certainly did not suggest that the county was ‘moving away from the runway configuration and operational plan’ presented to the Orange County community and the Department of Navy,” airport project manager Courtney Wiercioch stated in a letter responding to inquiries from Paul Eckles, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.

County officials have the authority to change the runway configuration during the next phase of planning, during which they will present a master plan and final environmental report to the Board of Supervisors.