Pilots Group to Oppose Easterly Takeoffs at El Toro
The president of the nation’s second-largest pilots union said Monday that pilots may refuse an easterly takeoff path if the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station becomes a commercial airport.
In a letter to the county, Allied Pilots Assn. President Richard T. LaVoy said that safety could be compromised if pilots are required to face tail winds and head toward the mountains during takeoff.
The county’s reuse plan for the retiring military base calls for 70% of departures to the east.
“Our pilots will use the safest departure paths into the prevailing winds and away from the rising terrain at El Toro, just as we do now at the John Wayne Orange County Airport,” stated LaVoy in the letter to Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim Silva.
Pilots say it is safer to take off to the west, something that county officials have opposed because it would send airplanes over homes in Irvine.
Representatives of the nation’s other pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Assn., have also raised concerns about the eastward takeoff plan.
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