Safety Matters and the El Toro Airport

* I received a brochure, “Flying in the Face of Safety,” questioning the safety of the El Toro airport.

Obviously, it was designed and distributed by South County activists to kill the proposed airport. What was particularly offensive to me was that they had the audacity to try to put Newport Beach in a bad light with a quote insinuating people will die at El Toro because our citizens don’t want flights over them. That is just outrageous.

I’ve taken the plane out of John Wayne Airport enough to know El Toro could not be any more of a risk to fly out of than John Wayne, with its dangerously small runway. In fact, I am certain the majority of pilots would prefer El Toro to John Wayne for safety reasons.

CLAUDIA FLYNT

Newport Beach

* The current and future economy of Orange County requires more commercial airport capacity than can be provided by expanding John Wayne Airport.

Millions of dollars have been spent on studies to determine the best location for an additional airport. There is no perfect location that will provide noise-free, hazard-free airport capacity for everybody living in Orange County.

El Toro is centrally located. The facilities already in place are worth billions of dollars. It is a valuable asset that will benefit the entire county.

The decision to use this valuable asset will require the statesmanship of exercising political leadership wisely and without narrow partisanship.

The Millennium Plan, designed by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, has a fatal flaw: It does not solve Orange County’s need for current and future air transportation.

The ETRPA brochure and survey request reflect “not in my backyard” mentality, particularly the phrase: “El Toro Airport . . . unneeded . . . unworkable . . . unsafe.”

I flew Marine Corps aircraft at El Toro intermittently from 1944 to 1968. I flew fighters, attack bombers and transports. I am aware of the terrain.

The excerpts from pilots’ statements that were printed in the brochure are intended to exaggerate the terrain hazards. Good piloting can cope safely with any terrain hazard in the vicinity of El Toro.

People living in Orange County and their elected representatives should exercise their common sense and statesmanship to override the “not in my backyard” attitude and accomplish what is necessary to satisfy the need for air transportation in Orange County.

G.E. WASSON

Santa Ana

* I have serious concerns with the proposed El Toro airport development.

As a former U.S. Navy C9B (McDonnell Douglas DC-30) pilot, I was tasked with many missions that operated out of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Among those missions were departures with the aircraft “loaded to the gills” with maximum capacity fuel in order to fly nonstop to Oahu in support of U.S. Marine Corps missions. On other occasions there were departures to the East Coast with planeloads of passengers or cargo.

We always took off from Runway 16. On those “long-haul legs” we could not legally or safely have taken off from any other runway. Runway 34 had the required length, the same as Runway 16, but the ridgeline to the north, coupled with a tail wind component generally, did not allow second-segment climb separation from the rising terrain.

Even if the “numbers” would have allowed us to legally take off on Runways 7 or 25, usually on short legs or with light loads, no aircraft commander (captain) would ever do so, unless the winds were unfavorable to Runway 16.

And so today, as a captain for a major U.S. airline, I, like most, if not all, aircraft captains, because of our deep commitment to safety, would elect to take off on Runway 16, the runway with the best combination of head wind and surface length.

We captains are the ones who would make the final decision as to what runway we will take off on, not the airport manager, nor any county official.

Unlike what the proponents have publicly stated about most takeoffs being conducted off Runway 7 or 34, this will not be the case. In fact it would be a rarity to take off on either of those two runways.

ALLAN H. ROY

San Clemente

* Special-interest groups daily bombard us with television, newspaper and mail propaganda touting the need for a new commercial airport at El Toro, presumably based on John Wayne Airport’s inability to handle future Orange County air transportation needs.

They fail to mention beautiful, newly rebuilt, grossly underutilized Ontario Airport, just 15 miles northeast of Anaheim. And add Long Beach Airport, 10 miles west of Anaheim, into the underutilized facilities category.

JERRY MAZENKO

Garden Grove