Jet Accident Called ‘Wake-Up Call’

Burbank city and airport officials renewed calls Monday for building a new passenger terminal farther from airport runways, saying the Southwest Airlines 737 that skidded onto a city street after landing easily could have crashed into the crowded terminal.

“Someone was looking down on us last night,” said Commissioner Charles Lombardo of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. Carl Meseck, the airport authority president, called the Sunday evening accident a “wake-up call.”

The Burbank terminal, built in 1930, is 313 feet from the center of the east-west runway that the Southwest flight landed on. Modern Federal Aviation Administration standards call for the terminal to be at least 750 feet away.

The Southwest plane crashed through a fence at the end of the runway before stopping in the middle of a busy thoroughfare.

The FAA in 1980 recommended that the Burbank terminal be moved. But construction plans have been stalled for years. Most recently, city officials have sided with neighbors worried that a new terminal would lead to more flights and noise.

Last summer, Burbank and the airport authority reached a preliminary agreement for a new, larger terminal in exchange for stricter noise limits.

But the plan was attacked by the airlines over several provisions, including a requirement to close the terminal from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The city, the airport authority, the FAA and the airlines must all agree on a final terminal plan.

Burbank Mayor Stacey Murphy said she would try to break the impasse by inviting representatives of the airlines into negotiations over the final terminal agreement.

“This accident was one more thing that heightened a sense of awareness that we need to come to terms with this,” Murphy said. “This has been going on too long.”

An official with an airline trade group welcomed the overture. The airlines will pay a large share of the terminal improvement.

“Of course we’ll talk to the city,” said Neil Bennett of the Air Transport Assn. “We’re always willing to talk about the future of the airport and be glad to participate in anything that moves things forward.”

Los Angeles city officials are upset about a proposal to ban easterly takeoffs that, in effect, direct jet airline noise toward city residents living west and south of the airport.

Airport officials said they will continue to seek a resolution to the long-running controversy, but cited their limitations.

“The airport authority doesn’t have the unilateral right or ability to fix this problem,” Burbank Airport Executive Director Dios Marrero said. “The only thing we do as a practical matter is to work with the FAA, the airlines and the city of Burbank to find a solution.”

Activist Ted McConkey is leading a city petition effort that would require voter approval for the new terminal. He said Sunday’s accident won’t change the group’s goal.

“It was an accident, that was what it was,” McConkey said Monday. “It had nothing to do with the terminal or the terminal relocation. It’s not going to stop us from putting an initiative on the ballot to regain some control over the size of the airport, the hours of operation and safety issues as well.”

Burbank Airport serves 4.7 million passengers a year. As many as 13,000 travelers pass through the terminal each day, an airport representative said.