Congress Urged to Use Clout to Lessen Burbank Jetliner Noise

U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman proposed Tuesday that Congress use the clout of the federal budget to force Burbank Airport to take measures demanded by noise protesters, including a limit on the number of jetliner flights.

He also called on Congress to require the Federal Aviation Administration to establish an air-traffic control tower at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima.

The Studio City Democrat urged congressional budget writers to impose conditions on the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority in return for any federal grants for construction of a proposed new Burbank Airport terminal.

Testifying to the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Berman urged that any construction grants require “an upper limit on the number of flights departing from the airport,” and also force the airport authority to mandate a substantial number of jetliner takeoffs to the east, over the three cities that own the airport.

No Action Seen in Near Future

There is not likely to be any committee action soon on Berman’s request, however, because the airport authority has no requests pending for federal aid to build the terminal, according to airport spokesman Victor Gill. But the authority expects to receive substantial federal help eventually for the project, which will cost more than $100 million, Gill said.

Berman said the nine members of the authority, appointed by the governments of the three cities, are politically motivated to resist measures that would lessen air traffic over Los Angeles neighborhoods at the price of routing more jetliners over their own cities.

“The members of that authority have a fundamental, inherent, but purely political reason for keeping flights from landing and taking off over their jurisdiction,” Berman said. “It is now crystal clear that the authority will continue to follow its well-established path of delay and resistance to any action that will result in redistribution of the noise burden.”

Gill, informed of Berman’s remarks, responded, “That’s a bunch of baloney.”

“The airport authority has no active agenda to steer flights one way or another,” the airport spokesman said. “The reasons flights go the way they do have been well discussed--pilot preference, FAA traffic control procedures, those things pure and simple.”

Ban May Be in Force Until 1990s

Although noise protesters have made “share the noise” plans a priority, the subject is moot for the time being. Currently, the FAA has forbidden eastbound takeoffs by jetliners because the present terminal is too close to the east-west runway. The ban is expected to remain in force until the new terminal goes into service in the 1990s.

Airport administrators have argued for years that, in any case, they have no authority to interfere with runway choices made by airline pilots, who almost always take off to the south--and then circle northwestward over Studio City, North Hollywood and Van Nuys--because that is the easiest and safest takeoff direction. The southbound runway is longer, runs downhill and faces into the wind.

In the same manner, they argue, the experience of other airports has shown that regulations limiting the number of flights are virtually certain to to overturned by federal courts or the FAA.

Instead, the airport has pushed airlines to assign only the quietest available aircraft--rated Stage Three by the FAA--to Burbank. As of this month, “We’re the only airport of our size that is served solely by Stage Three aircraft,” Gill said.

Berman also asked the committee to use its budget-writing powers to require the FAA to establish an air-traffic control tower at Whiteman, the only airport in the Valley where pilots now land without help from radar-equipped controllers.

The FAA has said that Whiteman, a county-owned airstrip used mostly by light planes, does not have enough traffic to warrant a control tower. But Berman said he supports the argument, made by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and others, that a tower is justified as a safety measure because of Whiteman’s location. Whiteman is only 5.5 miles from Van Nuys Airport and 3.8 miles from Burbank Airport.

“It is only a matter of time before a tragic accident occurs,” Berman said.

As support, he cited an incident in December in which the pilot of a Continental Airlines DC-9 came within 400 feet of landing the big jetliner at Whiteman, mistaking it for Burbank Airport, before the Burbank tower warned him of his mistake and he pulled up.