New El Toro Runway Idea to Be Urged for Study

Orange County supervisors will be asked Tuesday to consider a proposal that would reverse the long-established flight directions for a commercial airport at El Toro, calling for planes to arrive from the north and depart to the south.

Two pro-airport groups said they will ask for further study of the idea, long advocated by airline pilots as an alternative to the county’s current airport plan.

Providing a fallback to the current proposal--labeled unsafe by airline pilots and air-traffic controllers--makes sense, said Villa Park Mayor Robert E. McGowan, an airline pilot whose Airline Pilots for a Safer El Toro has been pushing for the new alignment for seven months.

McGowan said Federal Aviation Administration officials have told him the county’s current plan has too many hazards, including northerly takeoffs over Loma Ridge and easterly takeoffs into rising terrain.

The alternative plan calls for the demolition of the base’s east-west runway, an action the pilots also advocate.

“The FAA has told me they’d be pleased to have a solid alternative that’s realistic,” said McGowan, who said he discussed his plan with FAA officials in Washington in mid-March. “Their No. 1 concern is safety.”

Peggy Ducey, executive director of the 14-city Orange County Regional Airport Authority, said authority board members also will ask supervisors to give the pilots’ plan a closer look. The authority supports an airport at El Toro.

“We’re definitely trying to move this forward,” Ducey said.

Bob Cashman, chairman of the Orange County Airport Commission, said he also will ask supervisors to embrace the pilots’ plan. “It ought to be the preferred option,” he said. “It’s the only plan I’ve seen that has a chance of passing muster with the FAA.”

Federal officials so far have declined to comment publicly on the county’s airport plan, saying they will conduct their own study of the proposal.

Board Chairman Chuck Smith said elements of the pilots’ plan have “promise” but that the county should not change course unless the FAA indicates there are problems with the county’s proposal. So far, FAA officials haven’t done that, said Smith, who supports a new airport at the base.

“We need to keep our options open but we’re not going to make any change in direction until we get something more specific from the FAA,” he said.

Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad, another pro-airport vote on the five-member board, said she has faith in the current plan but is willing to consider alternatives.

El Toro airport foe Todd Thorton of Laguna Beach, a representative of the Air Line Pilots Assn., disagrees with his colleague McGowan, saying that any runway configuration would be dangerous.

“With that terrain, it’s not safe for an airport there, period,” Thorton said.

However, support for realigning the flight paths stretches beyond Orange County.

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, said this week that she doubts the FAA would approve the county’s plan because of numerous safety concerns. Schiavo, inspector general from 1990 to 1996, supports the idea of northerly arrivals and southerly departures.

“You could make a fabulous airport [at El Toro] if you align the runways properly,” she said. “The problem is that [the county] didn’t understand some vital aviation issues when they designed their plan.”

The pilots’ plan is superior to the county’s proposal in four key ways, McGowan said:

* It would reduce noise over homes and eliminate easterly takeoffs over Portola Hills, Coto de Caza and Foothill Ranch. Planes departing to the south would make a right turn after takeoff and fly above either open space or industrial and retail development, crossing the coast at about 7,000 to 10,000 feet above Laguna Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove State Park.

* It would neutralize pilot opposition to easterly departures, which are considered dangerous because of hills and rising terrain.

* It would eliminate concerns by pilots and air-traffic controllers about northerly departures, which in the current plan would send about 150 flights a day toward oncoming jets from four other airports.

* It would eliminate concerns by the Irvine Co. about potential westerly takeoffs over Irvine.

Irvine Co. spokesman Rich Elbaum declined to comment on McGowan’s proposal.

“We’re going to continue to respond to the formal planning process,” Elbaum said.

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Runway Switch

A group of airline pilots led by Villa Park Mayor Bob McGowan will ask supervisors Tuesday to order further study of a proposal to reverse flight paths at the proposed El Toro airport. The pilots’ plan advocates arrivals from the north and departures to the south--a reversal of the county’s current plan. Pilots and air-traffic controllers oppose the current county plan for safety reasons.