Early Morning Flight Idea Is Deceitful

* As a longtime worker in Newport Beach, I am shocked and appalled by the recent decision to commence cargo flights out of El Toro as soon as possible and with a daily schedule that is hypocritical and deceitful (Jan. 27).

It is incredible that the same people who when threatened with cargo flights out of John Wayne Airport sued and obtained a settlement providing for a maximum two cargo flights per day and none between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. can now, with a straight face, propose six cargo flights a day out of El Toro as early as 4 a.m. and as late as 11:30 p.m. for the next 3 1/2 years.

This number will then be increased to 71 flights and probably more. Woe to you hypocrites. Have you never heard of the golden rule, that you should treat others as you wish to be treated?

If, as they maintain, the Orange County economy is so desperately in need of additional cargo flights, let’s not wait until July. Rather, let’s start increasing the cargo flights and flight times at John Wayne starting today.

There is plenty of room and plenty of time in which to do so. Don’t worry about Newport Beach’s settlement agreement terms limiting those flights. They obviously don’t care what the affected residents want; and as a signatory to the agreement, Newport Beach and the county can modify it, as they have done in the past just by calling their attorneys.

They are the same attorneys they will call when the over 500,000 South County residents and airport opponents file litigation to prevent the cargo flights they now propose.

JOHN D. IRELAND

Newport Beach

* We residents of south Orange County think the Board of Supervisors has violated our interests, to the benefit of the Newport Beach and Santa Ana Heights residents.

To have cargo planes coming in at 4 a.m. and up to 11:30 p.m. is in total disregard for the elderly Leisure World residents who will not get restful sleep.

This is inhuman and callous. We must put a stop to the same mentality that drove Orange County into bankruptcy. It is time we get rid of people who cannot realize the consequences of their mistakes and who no longer represent the wishes of the electorate, but their own interests and that of a few developers.

ED TOWERS

Mission Viejo