Building Snarls Airport Signal, Test Finds : Navigation Aid to Stay Inoperative; Tustin Approach Path to Continue

A navigational radio transmitter at John Wayne Airport has flunked a key test and will remain inoperative because of signal interference from a new office complex, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.

As a result, pilots heading into John Wayne Airport must continue using the same instrument landing approach used by commercial jetliners. This path takes them over Tustin, where angry homeowners have complained about more aircraft noise and increased odds of an accident occurring over their neighborhoods.

When the navigational radio transmitter was in operation, many planes approached the airport over south Santa Ana.

FAA chief Donald D. Engen ordered the test of the transmitter last week after Orange County officials flew to Washington to protest the FAA’s January decision to turn off the device, known as a VOR (very high frequency omnidirectional range) transmitter.

Friday afternoon, an FAA-owned plane equipped for transmitter testing flew the VOR approach. “We determined that the signal being received was not a true signal and it (the VOR) failed the flight check,” FAA spokeswoman Elly Brekke said Tuesday. “We cannot turn it back on at this point.”

The signal from the John Wayne VOR is being deflected by a high-rise office building under construction at Hutton Center on MacArthur Boulevard in Santa Ana.

Signals from the VOR transmitter help pilots using navigational instruments to determine where they are in relation to the airport.

Although airport and FAA officials agree that the absence of the VOR is not dangerous, shutting it down forces most aircraft to use the same instrument-landing approach that jetliners follow when they fly into John Wayne Airport.

Brekke said the FAA will study alternate landing approaches and navigational aids in an effort to solve the problem.

Orange County Airport Commission Chairman David Prebish said Tuesday that the John Wayne Airport staff also will study the issue.

“Other than that, quite frankly, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Prebish said.

Attorney Gary Proctor, a pilot and airport commission member, said that one option under consideration is using a VOR transmitter in Pomona. Using that approach would bring aircraft over the county at higher altitudes than the instrument-landing approach over Tustin.

Proctor said the FAA also plans to see what happens when a VOR transmitter is placed on a building near an unnamed air strip with an eye towards doing the same atop a building at John Wayne Airport. “That’s never been done before, as far as I know,” said Proctor. “I don’t know why.”

Airport Manager George Rebella did not return The Times’ telephone calls Tuesday. One of his aides said that Rebella will not comment on the test results until Thursday, after he has received them in writing.

The FAA has complained that the same MacArthur Boulevard office complex has been responsible for a series of VOR transmission problems since early 1984. The accuracy of VOR signals is affected differently by various kinds of building surfaces. Reflective coatings on glass surfaces--such as those at the Hutton Center--cause the worst problem, according to the FAA.

Attempts to relocate the VOR transmitter have failed, according to airport officials, because the FAA wants a guarantee that the new location will be protected from urban encroachment.