Add L.A. to the El Toro Debate

* Re “El Toro Battle Pushes Beyond County Lines,” April 9:

What is going on in Los Angeles? Can one even fathom mayoral candidates in Orange County telling L.A. what they should do with LAX? Why should the reverse be different? They obviously are so uninformed on the El Toro issue, they think it is a quick fix to their airport woes.

The El Toro Marine Corps Air Station’s future is not theirs to decide. There are procedures and protocol set by the Department of Defense. One of the DOD’s requirements is a consensus of surrounding cities. That is something even our own majority of three supervisors continues to ignore.

The Board of Supervisors approved $5 million for additional P.R. It appears to me that some of that money is being spent on T-shirts for carpetbaggers to wear promoting El Toro at LAX meetings. Where are the “Fly John Wayne” T-shirts advertising our beautiful, underutilized, existing airport that is having its profits siphoned off?

MARY SCHWARTZ

Santa Ana

* Re “El Toro Planners Ignore Pilots,” (Letters, April 8):

Capt. Jon Russell of the Air Line Pilots Assn. stated he is miffed because the county planners for El Toro airport are not receptive to his safety suggestions and prefer instead to wait for the FAA to make the analysis regarding operating procedures.

Russell took the time to go to the supervisors and then write about his concerns to The Times. That would be fine except for one major problem: He should be far more concerned about the current safety of passengers at John Wayne Airport than potential ones at the proposed El Toro.

John Wayne is one of the most unsafe airports in the entire United States. Its one short 5,700-foot runway with no buffer zone does not offer any forgiveness for mechanical or human errors on takeoff or landings. Its steep, and at times frightening, takeoff procedures put unnecessary stress on the engines. It is one of the busiest airports in the world but one of the very smallest in physical size.

John Wayne is high on the list of airports reporting “near misses.” It has a dangerous mix of small private aircraft with large commercial planes, which has already been determined as the cause of one fatal accident. I have heard pilots state all of the above risky elements make John Wayne a major accident waiting to happen. It is frightening to realize there are homes with families and schools with children located just a few blocks from this airport.

Why weren’t John Wayne’s serious safety concerns being addressed by Russell and the Air Line Pilots Assn.? Why is the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a group opposed to an airport at the much-larger El Toro site, willing to double or triple the number of flights and passengers out of the extremely small John Wayne? Certainly they are aware of the above risks and know safety will be even more severely compromised with a John Wayne expansion. I believe the answer is that these people are thinking more about politics than the actual safety of passengers.

BONNIE O’NEIL

Newport Beach

* Re “Engineering Consent” (Editorial, April 1):

It pains me to see the county and the city of Newport Beach spend additional millions of dollars on a “public relations” campaign supposedly designed to convince Orange County citizens that forcing an airport into a highly developed urban area such as El Toro is appropriate. There is no way that the residents of South County will be convinced to accept an airport in their midst.

I placed quotes around the words public relations in that, as a public relations professional, I believe that any reputable public relations firm would convince the Board of Supervisors and the Newport Beach City Council that such an expenditure is wasted money. I cannot believe that a reputable public relations firm, having researched the airport problem to any extent, would accept payment to conduct such a campaign.

MARTIN A. BROWER

Corona del Mar

* In my view, a comparative economic analysis would show that a world-class airport at El Toro would have a very large competitive advantage over a “great park.”

To be a believer, one only has to look at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, for example, to realize the billions of dollars an airport generates in a metropolitan area’s economy, either directly or indirectly. What would Los Angeles be without LAX?

To pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at El Toro would be a gross mistake.

Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson should recognize this as fact, but they choose to think otherwise. An airport at El Toro would bring about a wide range of occupational opportunities for our young people coming out of schools and colleges. It would enhance their standards of living as well as their quality of life.

An airport would facilitate bringing cultures and markets of the world to our doorsteps, enhancing free trade. It would allow a simpler route to that exchange. It would allow the inherent, potential benefits of those 4,700 acres to reach more people in Orange County.

Supervisors have a responsibility to report the truth about the need, feasibility and benefits of the full potential of an airport at El Toro, for all the people of Orange County, not just those who live around the airport site.

Millions are being spent by anti-airport activists, misleading and misrepresenting the facts, obstructing and delaying the progress toward activating the airport. This is being done at the very time the county struggles to pay off its huge bankruptcy debt and tries to find the means to pay fair of the other services the public expects. These tactics are costing the people of Orange County years of time and millions of dollars.

VICTOR H. JASHINSKI

Corona del Mar

* Finally, we have a bit of honesty in the battle. Irvine and other South County cities demand that John Wayne double its air passenger traffic now. Despite their argument that there is little need for additional air traffic in Orange County, they declare that John Wayne is underused.

Doubling the air traffic at John Wayne means that private planes will be eliminated and that both runways be extended. The number of gates will be doubled and surrounding residential and commercial areas will have to be eliminated. These drastic changes are all in the name of protecting South County from having airplanes fly out of El Toro.

None of these NIMBYs is willing to admit that Orange County needs a two-airport system to meet the future air traffic needs. Can Los Angeles be expected to carry our air traffic load forever?

VIRGIL L. GALEY

Newport Beach