Letters: A twisty takeoff for John Wayne Airport?
Re “Newport Beach wants a new flight path to ease noise,” Aug. 4
“Adding an S-curve to the already complex takeoff pattern could add a challenge” is an understatement in the event of the loss of an engine during takeoff. There is no doubt that the new takeoff procedure from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport sought by Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry to “do anything to reduce the [noise] impact” on his community may well result in a different type of impact should an aircraft have a major problem.
Safety is a relative term. Pilots, being the first at the scene of an accident, choose a higher margin of safety than those who believe that automation in planes will solve the noise issue.
If you wish to minimize all impacts on the neighbors, trust the pilots, not the lawyers.
Jean-Claude Demirdjian
Los Angeles
The writer is a retired airline pilot.
Newport Beach’s “movers and shakers” have another scheme to inconvenience and endanger tens of thousands of air travelers: They want to replace the current odd departure pattern they insisted upon with an even more bizarre computer-controlled uphill slalom run.
At least this plan is less grandiose than their original scheme to control jet noise by building a whole new airport 10 miles away at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station so the planes would fly over other people’s homes, not theirs.
In Orange County, this is called social progress.
Al Senia
Aliso Viejo
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