Newport facing twists and turns of airplane rules

June Casagrande

What little difference a year makes. As recently as last summer,

City Council members, staff and representatives from neighboring

cities were scouring the fine print of federal aviation laws, looking

for ways they could reduce the annoyance of banner-towing airplanes

above the beaches.

Then, earlier this month, they were applauding a decision by

federal authorities to ban the flights. But just a few weeks later,

another turn of events has reinstated some pilots’ rights to fly

banner-towing planes over stadiums and other public gatherings.

It remains unclear what this means for the planes that fly by

local beaches, but this latest move could cause the rebirth of a

problem that residents of Newport Beach and neighboring coastal

cities have complained of for years.

“Those planes are a terrible nuisance,” Mayor Tod Ridgeway said

Monday.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Ridgeway had lauded the

Transportation Security Administration’s decision to stop the flights

due to post-Sept. 11 security concerns. But, as evidenced by ad

planes flying over the World Series games, the administration has

reversed that decision, possibly putting locals back in the same

situation as they were in the summer of 2001.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, city officials were looking for legal

ways to control the problem. One option, though potentially not

legal, was to create an ordinance similar to one passed in Huntington

Beach recently. It’s likely such an ordinance would not have

withstood a legal challenge because federal rules prohibit cities

from regulating aircraft in most cases.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, federal authorities grounded

banner-towing planes, but later reauthorized about 700 pilots

nationwide. Last month, however, the federal government rescinded all

the waivers.

As of last summer, there were five companies operating

banner-towing planes in Newport Beach, all of them based at Long

Beach Airport. It is not known how many flights take place over

Newport Beach’s coastline.

City staff are not working on the issue right now.