FAA: El Toro would be safe

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- The county’s proposed El Toro airport would be safe

but not the best use of airspace, according to a report released Tuesday

by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Notably, the report anticipates delays at John Wayne Airport caused by

the proposed South County facility.

Under an acknowledged worst-case scenario, each departure out of an

airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station could delay 24

arrivals into John Wayne and Long Beach airports.

Planes taking off north out of El Toro would bring planes heading into

those two airports to an eight-minute halt, according to the report.

Still, in the summary of the report -- which faced several delays

since its original Aug. 29 release date -- a regional director with the

Federal Aviation Administration said commercial jet operations under the

county’s plan “can be conducted in a safe manner.”

Report author William Withycombe said the FAA has also determined the

county’s plan “is not the most efficient use of navigable airspace, as

may be possible.”

Airport supporters praised the report as an answer to long-running

safety concerns about operating commercial flights out of the former

Marine base.

“This is a home run for us,” said Dave Ellis, the spokesman for the

Airport Working Group. “It shoots all those concepts down and says this

is a safe facility as proposed by the county.”

South County leaders offered a somewhat different slant on the report.

Members of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of South

County cities fighting the airport, said the report would hurt the

county’s odds of getting the airport built.

“What they’re saying is that you can operate this airport safely if

you only operate a couple flights a day,” authority Chairman Allan

Songstad said. “Why would you build something that is going to cause air

traffic inefficiencies?”

The report analyzes the county’s on-record plan to build an airport at

the base that would handle 28.8 million passengers a year by 2020. At

that point in time, 5.4 million passengers are expected to use John Wayne

a year.

But supervisors have indicated they would like to build a much smaller

airport, serving 18.8 million passengers a year or fewer.

And that could reduce the delays predicted in the report, contended

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor.

Proctor also said FAA concerns about the most efficient use of

airspace wouldn’t sink the plan.

Even though the FAA would prefer to send departing planes directly

south, Proctor said, the FAA would still accept the county’s plan to send

some flights north.

“Their ease of operation is not the litmus test for safety or

usability,” Proctor said.

In the end, most minds won’t be changed by the report, even if it does

give the county a little more political traction with the federal

aviation regulator, people on both sides of the issue agreed.

-- Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .