Columnist Joseph N. Bell and many...

Columnist Joseph N. Bell and many of the Pilot readers would like

to give El Toro a proper burial (“A few things to ask before burying

El Toro,” July 25). As well they should. Removing the “cosmetic

makeover,” however, will not provide the citizens of Newport Beach

the answers that they seek. No, a real autopsy is required, starting

with the so-called “we voted twice” to have an airport.

Many who voted “yes” on Measure A, back in 1994, did so because

they believed the claims that a commercial airport at the

soon-to-be-closed Marines base would be a “turnkey” operation.

Same flights, same limited amount of noise and operations, the

only change would be the color of the uniform. Sure, some also

dreamed of taking a flight to London, Rome or Tokyo, bypassing LAX,

and some even believed that a commercial airport at El Toro would be

an economic engine.

The fact that Measure A barely passed while the county was in a

recession suggested, though, that the economic argument was not a

decisive one.

When the environmental report was released in the summer of 1996,

almost two years after the voters approved Measure A, many jaws

dropped. This was not going to be more of the same thing. The

proposed airport at El Toro would be the size of San Francisco

International operating around the clock. Fuel would have to be

trucked to the airport -- 250 tanker trucks a day; the runways would

have to be torn and rebuilt and “international” flights meant Mexico

and Canada. And while the county promised a politically correct

takeoff proposal -- away from residential areas -- pilots and the law

of physics claimed the opposite.

Indeed, a memo from the Federal Aviation Administration suggested

that northerly takeoffs would have to make an immediate left turn to

continue toward the ocean over Newport Beach. These facts that were

slowly unearthed by South County communities, together with the

economic expansion of the ‘90s, were what was behind the shift in

public opinion to realize that a commercial airport at El Toro was a

losing proposition.

And yet, I have no doubt that had the leaders of the Airport

Working Group used tact and political savvy, had they approached the

communities of South County with an open invitation to consider all

possible base reuses, that by now jets would be flying at El Toro.

Instead, the group’s leaders used bullying tactics and demanded

that the county follow their wishes and this turned most South County

voters, as well as others, against Newport Beach. Based on the

continuing arrogant comments from the group’s leaders, on letters

claiming that flights should not be over expensive homes and on

Bell’s demand that noise over his patio be moved to others’ -- the

real lesson of El Toro has yet to be learned, if at all.

HANNA HILL

Minneapolis

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Hanna Hill is a former resident of Irvine who

keeps up with the El Toro issue from her Midwest home.