El Toro Included in a Suburban Air Traffic Control Plan : New Rule Is Aimed at Cutting the Rate of Near-Collisions

Seeking to reduce a record number of near-collisions in the skies above airports in suburban locations such as El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, the Federal Aviation Administration is launching a new traffic control program that will require pilots as far as 10 miles away to contact air traffic controllers and announce their whereabouts.

The new regulations, scheduled to take effect at three Southern California airports on Jan. 16, are the culmination of a four-year review of the national airspace system. They are expected to reduce delays and increase safety at 66 of the nation’s busiest mid-size airports.

Ontario, Burbank and El Toro were designated as the first California airports subject to the new controls in final FAA regulations issued Friday.

While most major air terminals such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco already have stringent controls on planes operating nearby, the new program addresses a growing problem at suburban airports where private and commercial planes mingle, creating the potential for accidents.

While existing regulations require pilots to contact an airport’s control tower when they come within five miles of the airport, there has been no mechanism to require anything other than voluntary communication in areas farther from the airport that may be just as congested, FAA officials said.

The mid-air collision problem came sharply into focus in Orange County earlier this year, when a Jet America MD-80 making a landing approach to John Wayne Airport had to swerve sharply to avoid a small private plane that was not in contact with air traffic controllers.

Only last month, a single-engine private plane collided with a business jet en route to Teeterboro, N.J., killing all occupants of both planes and a man on the ground who died when debris from the jet struck his apartment.

And a little more than a year ago, a commuter airliner with 15 passengers aboard struck a small private plane shortly after takeoff from San Luis Obispo County Airport, killing all aboard.

The 589 incidents last year in which two aircraft came dangerously close to each other set a new record and reported near mid-air collisions this year are already up 33% from the same period in 1984, federal officials said.

“We just feel that we have to do everything in our power to provide for a safe environment within the navigable airspace. The entire program is a safety program,” said Joseph Fowler, airspace specialist for the FAA’s Los Angeles region.

The new regulations, which eventually will establish control zones known as Airport Radar Service Areas around 66 major airports, are also expected to reduce air traffic delays because they reduce the distance controllers are required to maintain between aircraft within the zones.

Owners and pilots of small aircraft already are mounting a challenge to the new program, which they say places further restrictions on their ability to fly where they want to in areas that they believe are already overregulated. Moreover, they say the regulations could actually increase safety hazards by encouraging pilots to fly too low or too near mountainous terrain to avoid the new control zones.

But the Air Line Pilots Assn. said the program is “a positive step to decrease the potential of a mid-air collision in the busy terminal areas where the risk of a collision is at its peak.”

“There are certain airports in this country where the traffic conditions are such that we need to exercise a little bit more control in order to protect the traveling public,” said John O’Brien, director of engineering and air safety for the airline pilots group. “The people who are paying the fare for their tickets expect for their money a certain level of protection. There are only certain ways we can provide that protection, and this is one of them.”

Burbank, Ontario and El Toro, along with other airports designated for the new control zones, are already protected by a system that allows pilots to voluntarily communicate with controllers for radar assistance, a program which the 265,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. believes is adequate.

In Orange County, the new control zone will be centered around the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where military pilots for years have complained about conflicts with private aircraft operating near the air base. But the airspace contained in the zone will also take in most aircraft operating from John Wayne Airport and flying up and down the coast, FAA officials said.

Claims Disputed

While the FAA claims that no additional controllers will be needed to handle the new program, aircraft pilots’ spokeswoman Patricia Weil said the experience at three airports where the Airport Radar Service Area program has been tried--Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Tex.; Baltimore, Md.--showed otherwise.

Particularly in Baltimore, she said, many pilots have experienced delays in getting permission to fly into the region, and some pilots have simply been denied access to the control zone because of heavy controller workloads.

“Obviously, they’re not going to be able to handle all the traffic that is going to be coming their way,” she said. “And because of those problems, a lot of people will obviously elect not to fly in the ARSA. . . At various locations around the country, flying under the ARSA will mean bringing airplanes closer to populated areas than a prudent pilot might like.”

Paul Smith, spokesman for the FAA’s airspace rules division in Washington, acknowledged that there were delays for some light aircraft pilots that came with implementation of the new regulations at Baltimore earlier this year, but he said increases in air traffic were the primary reason.

Warning of Congestion

Because the new rules eliminate the old requirement for at least a mile and a half of horizontal distance, or 500 feet vertical distance between aircraft using visual navigation, most aircraft should experience fewer delays, Smith said.

O’Brien of the airline pilots organization said delays are in many cases a warning sign that airspace has become too congested. A delay, he said, “certainly might be an inconvenience (to pilots), but from another standpoint, that’s exactly the way it’s supposed to work: so that the controller isn’t overburdened, and so that we don’t have more airplanes in the system than the system can handle.”

Noise is another issue that has emerged in the control zone debate. Burbank Airport managers, for example, said they believe the new regulations will enhance safety but could mean that aircraft will begin flying over outlying residential areas to avoid the new zone. “Where airplanes go, so goes noise,” said airport noise specialist Richard Vacar.

Eleven airports on the East Coast, Texas and Oklahoma are scheduled for the new control zones on Dec. 19. The three Southern California airports are part of a block of 22 airports throughout the nation coming under the regulations in mid-January.

Upcoming Additions

By April of next year, airports at Sacramento and several surrounding military bases, Oakland and Castle Air Force Base near Merced will also become part of the program.

In Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena, the control zone will include private aircraft from nearby Van Nuys Airport--one of the busiest airports in the nation--and control zones at Ontario and nearby March and Norton Air Force bases will include most traffic operating in the Riverside-San Bernardino basin.

None of the control zones, however, extends higher than 4,000 feet above the ground. Thus, aircraft operating at higher altitudes will not be subject to the new requirements.

But Sandy Ablott, president of the Orange County Pilots Assn., said the new zones will make it difficult for pilots to conduct training flights. Airplanes leaving Corona or Chino airports to popular destinations in the upper desert will be unable to make the flights without contacting controllers, he complained.

“We visualize all this grab of airspace by the military and commercial airlines as simply a way of preventing them from doing what they should be doing like civilian pilots: see and be seen,” Ablott said. “It’s kind of like the seat belt law: The theory behind it is great, but you’ll find it’s such a dumb law, that people are just going to violate it, and that’s worse than having no law at all.”