El Toro May Snarl Air Traffic, Report Says

The international airport proposed at the former El Toro Marine base would eventually send nearly 150 flights a day toward oncoming jets from four other airports, compounding issues of safety and raising the prospects of delays throughout the crowded skies above Southern California, documents show.

Northbound flights leaving El Toro--about a third of its flights, including its largest jets--would be forced to pass “over, under or through” other planes’ routes, according to the consultants’ report.

“It’s like driving the wrong way down the freeway,” said Robert E. McGowan, the mayor of Villa Park and a retired United Airlines pilot. “You can only get away with it for a couple minutes. It’s just no good.”

Ultimately, air traffic controllers say, it will take time to coordinate the flights.

“Airplanes can [already] be slowed up as far away as Arizona when they are approaching Los Angeles,” said Barry Schiff, a retired TWA captain and member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. who lives in Los Angeles.

“When you funnel aircraft into a greater number of airports you can have more complexity and a greater number of delays. It would probably just compound the problem.”

Business interests have lobbied to open a commercial airport at the defunct El Toro base since it was targeted for closure in 1993. The campaign has divided Southern California into pro- and anti-airport factions, such as Los Angeles and Long Beach residents who want El Toro to draw traffic away from their skies, and southern Orange County residents who don’t want jet noise interrupting their dinner conversations.

The reports say that it would be possible to coordinate El Toro flights with others in the region. But it wouldn’t be easy.

Conflicts Don’t Bother Officials

According to the documents, which are part of the county’s environmental impact report, planes leaving El Toro to the north would intersect with airspace used by planes headed toward and leaving Los Angeles International Airport, Long Beach Airport, John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Ontario International Airport.

“Airspace interactions,” as they are known in the industry, would take place between 2,000 and 6,500 feet above an area about five to eight miles north of El Toro--just south of the intersection of the Riverside and Costa Mesa freeways.

Orange County officials contend that these conflicts are mere details that will be worked out in the planning process. They say it is inevitable that the airspace would become more crowded because of increased passenger and commercial demands.

The report dismisses the potential for delays as “insignificant,” and the documents say that El Toro flights would pass about 2,000 feet below flights headed toward Long Beach and about 1,000 feet below flights headed toward and leaving Los Angeles. The minimum separation permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration is five horizontal miles and 1,000 vertical feet.

That doesn’t satisfy critics like McGowan, who compared the scenario to Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan--famous for his “accidental” and unauthorized flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1938.

“This is not a safe operation,” said Kevin Van Uden, an air traffic controller union representative for the FAA facility that controls planes from the Point Mugu Naval Air Station to the Mexican border.

The county’s plans also have been criticized by the Air Line Pilots Assn., the nation’s largest union of commercial pilots, and by the smaller Allied Pilots Assn. The main concern of pilots has been that 62% of El Toro’s departures would be toward the east over the rugged and rocky Santa Ana Mountains. They also have protested northern departures because of airspace problems with jets and with a major private-pilot flight path over Anaheim Hills.

“You’ve got a potential three-way conflict,” said Van Uden, adding that he will recommend the union oppose the airport because of the safety and delay issues.

Even if air traffic controllers and the FAA resolve safety concerns--which many observers say is likely--it will come with a price.

Because of the additional flights introduced above Southern California, air traffic controllers will be forced to “maneuver departures” to “achieve separation,” the report says. In layman’s terms, it means that some flights will have to wait for a hole in the flight routes, which could mean delays across the region.

Delays would be concentrated mostly at John Wayne Airport and Long Beach Airport, controllers said. Turboprop jets used by regional carriers at Los Angeles International could suffer delays because they fly at lower altitudes than jetliners. Business jets and private planes also could be affected.

“My concern would not be safety, because frankly, as the FAA and air traffic control design these routes they have very strict criteria on how they have to lay them out,” said Warren Morningstar, a vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. in Frederick, Md.

“It’s not the kind of thing where I would jump up and down and say that we are compromising safety. They will be safe. The question will be: What will it do to operating efficiency?”

Schiff said El Toro would only tangle what is already some of the most complicated flight choreography in the country.

Though it is tough to quantify, pilots and other industry officials already consider Southern California the second busiest and most complex airspace in the country after New York, which includes La Guardia, Kennedy, Newark and Teeterboro airports.

More than 6,000 aircraft leave or land at Southern California airports or pass over the region each day, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA’s airport control towers--at Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Long Beach and John Wayne--are among the nation’s 50 busiest. The tower at Los Angeles is the nation’s fourth busiest, after Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.

“It’s almost a no-win situation,” said Van Uden. “We can make almost anything work. But is it the most efficient? No. We can make it safe, but then it’ll take you another 10 minutes before you can land.”

Charles V. Smith, chairman of the pro-airport majority on the Board of Supervisors, said questions about the safety of El Toro’s departure routes are legitimate. The FAA also is conducting a safety evaluation, he said.

“The key is going to be the FAA,” Smith said. “They have the final word.”

If the FAA decides that the flight paths are unsafe or should be changed, “we’ll have to make adjustments accordingly,” Smith said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Crowded Skies

SOUTHLAND’S USUAL FLIGHT PATHS

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Pacific Ocean

Note: Burbank Airport and San Diego’s Lindbergh Field were not included in the El Toro study.

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Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times

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Sources: Southern California Assn. of Governments, Orange County

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