Marines Gone, El Toro Debate Isn’t

* El Toro airport opponents shouldn’t let themselves be too encouraged by American Airlines VP Robert Baker’s criticism of the county’s proposed use of Runway 07 (“Airline Details El Toro Safety Concerns,” June 30).

Baker didn’t say, as Irvine Mayor Christine Shea infers, that his pilots “can’t use” Runway 07. He said, “it will never be considered desirable or preferable.” And there’s a big difference between undesirable and unusable.

All things being equal, every runway would be 12,000 feet long and 20 miles from the nearest home or obstruction. But that’s not the way the real world works. Runway 07 has, in fact, been used quite safely for many years by jet and prop aircraft, large and small.

During Desert Storm, for example, civil charter jets operated regularly in and out of El Toro. Pilots were free to take off and land on any of the airport’s four runways. Airport control tower records show that 79% of DC-9, B-727 and B-737 captains chose to take off from Runway 07.

I also have in my possession a copy of an American Airlines letter dated Jan. 27, 1989, which states that most American Airlines aircraft could safely take off from Runway 07 most of the time.

I think it would be a good idea for someone to ask Mr. Baker what he and his pilots think of operating out of John Wayne and its short 5,700-foot runway with freeways at each end.

NORMAN G. EWERS

Irvine

* Re Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-Huntington Beach) remark “Progress should not be held hostage to those unwilling to suffer so the rest of society can prosper”:

This sounds like something out of the robber baron days 100 years ago. Who is going to prosper? Newport Beach multimillionaires that he owes his soul to? He is talking about half of Orange County. Thousands of homeowners and property owners in South County do not want the airport.

It only makes sense to those who will make billions of taxpayer dollars from the construction of the airport and lawsuits from cities and property owners. Also let’s not forget the air freight companies. They are really the reason Newport Beach advocates are pushing for it so hard. So money can be made!

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) is correct that it has not been fair to the people the airport is going to impact. Why not wait till 2005 and open up John Wayne Airport to the capacity it was designed for? Use the valuable land at El Toro to enrich our recreation, schools and industry that wants to grow. Bring in more high-tech companies that pay more than minimum wage.

If the county is scared of Newport Beach suing over John Wayne, how are they going to pay damages to the thousands of lawsuits over El Toro? The issue is fairness, not economic gain. Do we really want South County to end up like the cities around LAX? Orange County (unlike L.A. County) can do fine without the El Toro airport.

DALE PETERSON

Lake Forest

* Is El Toro’s eastern runway safe? Of course it is! Unfortunately, anti-airport activists use anything possible to create doubts about the new airport, but a closer examination of the facts revealed in a Times article reveals the truth (“Warning on El Toro Runway Stirs Foes,” July 6).

American Airlines executive Robert Baker did not say Runway 07 was unsafe, only that it was not ideal! He could easily have added “very few are.” Takeoff procedures from John Wayne, for example, are a pilot’s nightmare. The Federal Aviation Assn. is the authority on safety issues, and I think it is safe to conclude the county is in close contact with that organization regarding El Toro airport.

W. FRIEDMAN

Newport Beach

* The constant references to the two past “votes” on the airport by pro-airport parties are misleading. Maybe we should all tell a more complete story of these “votes.”

In the nonpresidential election year of 1994 with its lower voter turnouts, Measure A was presented as proposing a “turnkey’ airport, predominantly for cargo flights to help the county with conducting business with the then-burgeoning Pacific Rim nations. Proponents appeared on local news channels and public access programming touting these same “turnkey” cargo selling points and stating how there was no extension of operating hours proposed and since even the noisiest civilian jet makes less noise than the Marine jets, it would represent little or no impact to the surrounding communities. While the actual language of the measure concerning actual uses was certainly more open-ended, it wasn’t presented that way to the average voter. The measure narrowly passed.

The second “vote” took place during the anti-climactic March primaries after Sen. [Bob] Dole had all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination and so turnout was rather low. Measure M was defeated and thus seemed to support an airport, or did it? The wording of Measure M was somewhat confusing and required a “Yes” vote for no airport at El Toro. While anti-airport groups have no one to blame but themselves for that language gaffe, it’s not too hard to imagine some voters inadvertently voting “No” thinking they were voting for no airport at El Toro.

I would propose that rather than hide behind these previous “vote” results conducted before the full scope of the county’s plans were presented to the citizens of Orange County and were heavily influenced by nongovernmental organizations with significant special interests, that the county take the higher moral ground and conduct a third vote on the airport issue. No confusing language or private party financing and the vote conducted to coincide with the November 2000 presidential elections to take advantage of the usually higher voter turnouts. Simple language. Should El Toro be converted to an airport with cargo and/or passenger flights; “Yes” or “No.” Period.

DOUGLAS BLAUL

Portola Hills

* Re “Airport Foes Well on Way,” July 3:

In regard to organizers’ anti-airport initiative for a proposed airport in El Toro, I am glad to see that 90,000 people have never flown, nor intend to fly on an airplane in their life, because these same people would certainly not want to be hypocritical and use an airport in someone else’s backyard causing noise.

I think that if more people would vow to never fly there would not be a need for additional airports, and/or the airlines could cut down on the number of flights, thus reducing noise. So, I certainly wish the anti-airport organizers luck in obtaining many, many more fellow airport foes to take a vow to never fly.

ROD La ROCQUE

La Habra