Crash Spurs Interest in Airport Pact

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 could have easily crashed into the 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 acci dent a “wake-up call.”

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

The arriving Southwest plane crashed through a fence at the end of the runway, before coming to a stop in the middle of a busy thoroughfare.

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

Last summer, the city of 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 and the FAA must 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 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.”

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An official with an airline trade group welcomed the overture. The airlines would help pay the cost of the $300-million project through higher leases and landing fees.

“Of course we’ll talk to the city,” said Neil Bennett, of the Air Transport Assn. “We’re are 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 could force more noise on 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 pointed out 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.”

That solution has seemed to be further out of reach during the running public disagreement between Murphy and Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey.

The disagreement erupted after a Jan. 2 letter to The Times in which Garvey urged Murphy to open negotiations on the new terminal to Los Angeles residents and other parties.

The next month, the pair exchanged letters, with Murphy calling on Garvey and other FAA officials to provide guidance and support for a terminal agreement and Garvey maintaining the agency has done its part to give legal direction to the city.

FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner declined to comment on the terminal issue or Murphy’s proposal to include others in the terminal talks.

On the home front, the terminal deal faces an uncertain future in a local advisory measure, which has been approved by the Burbank City Council but has not yet been placed on the local ballot.

Additionally, 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 each year. As many as 13,000 travelers pass through the Burbank Airport terminal a day, said an airport spokesman.

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Plans under the current terminal proposal call for construction of a modern 300,000-square-foot facility that includes 14 gates, with possible expansion to 16 and later 19 gates.

If approved, the terminal would be built on 130 acres, the former location of Lockheed Martin Plant B-6. The city of Burbank must approve the project by May 24 or the agreement could be voided--and most of the land set aside for the new terminal could potentially be sold. Any extension would have to be approved by both parties. In addition, the FAA authorized the airport to begin collecting a $3 per passenger ticket tax in December 1998, and under federal law the airport must begin construction on the project by December--or risk forfeiting nearly $85 million.

To meet that deadline, the airport must complete building plans and specifications, obtain building and grading permits from Burbank, bid on contractors and, most importantly, come up with an overall financing package, airport officials said.

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* IN THE PATH

Gas station worker says runaway jet reminded him of a scene from “Con Air.” B2