Response on Burbank Airport

I read a letter to the editor (“Flight Decisions” Sunday, January 23) from reader James E. Foy, chastising the thousands of homeowners who prefer that 100% of the planes not now be diverted over their homes to the west, as Burbank City Council Mayor Stacy Murphy has proposed.

His letter points to a “handful of hard-core anti-airport activists.” However, it’s clearly the reverse. If the reader has been to any of the public forums on the airport expansion, he knows that the meetings are overwhelmingly against Mayor Murphy’s plan to ban easterly takeoffs. At least 90% opposed with 10% of pro-airport lobbyists in favor.

I do agree with Foy’s assessment that the pilot should make the decision about departure direction for safety reasons. But by directing all the flights east, don’t you risk removing one of the pilots’ “safe flight plan” options to the west? They’ve flown west for years, why is it suddenly impossible now? During Santa Ana conditions easterly takeoffs are actually preferred. Stacy Murphy has take this decision out of the hands of the pilots and put it in the hands of politicians . . . hers.

ROBERT RHINE

Valley Village