Airport Anger

* As a resident of Newport Beach, living for three decades directly under the John Wayne flight path, I read Leonard Kranser’s letter (Oct. 15) with considerable interest. As one of the chief spokesmen for the hysterical campaign against a commercial airport at El Toro, Kranser has given new vividness and potency to the word “duplicity.” During the campaign to establish El Toro as a commercial venture, we in Newport Beach were given the pious promise that, of course, South County voters would never consent to see the flight caps expanded or eliminated at John Wayne. They professed to want to preserve for us as much “quality of life” as presently exists here.

Now Kranser, having helped to subvert the El Toro plan, blows his cover by asserting that “we” need more capacity, and that politics is the only barrier to expansion at John Wayne. Kranser, who lives so far from El Toro that he couldn’t hear a jet if he tried is now publicly willing to further degrade the quality of life in Newport Beach after having made sure his quality of life will remain secure.

DAVID H. WALLACE

Newport Beach

* Kranser states that the only thing standing in the way of expanding John Wayne Airport is politics. True. But equally, the only thing standing in the way of a commercial airport at El Toro is politics.

JOHN KRAUS

Newport Beach