Panel Sets Off Dogfight by Approving Shift in Some Burbank Airport Takeoffs

WASHINGTON — Setting off a raucous dogfight over jet noise, a House committee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at shifting half of the takeoffs at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport away from the congressional district of the bill’s originator, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City).

Republicans on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee fiercely protested the measure on behalf of Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), whose district lies beneath the proposed new takeoff route east of the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the airport’s governing body also strongly opposed the legislation, which calls for withholding up to $40 million in federal improvement grants for the airport until it adopts a plan of equally dividing east and west takeoff patterns. The plan would have to be deemed “feasible and safe” by the FAA.

The measure was added as an amendment to a massive airport improvement bill on a 31-21 vote, with all but one Democrat supporting it and all Republicans opposed. The bill now goes to the House floor.

Aviation subcommittee chairman Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), who offered the amendment at Berman’s request, said that it would “help resolve a long-standing noise problem” for Los Angeles residents south and west of the airport who have been “denied a voice on the issue” by “arrogant” representatives of the three cities that own the facility.

In a letter to committee members, Berman charged that commissioners of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority “are clearly committed to protecting their constituents from assuming any of the noise burden associated with the airport, reserving only the benefits of commerce and enhanced property values for their areas.”

Committee Chairman James J. Howard (D-N.J.) said it boiled down to a rich-poor issue: “All the flights are going over the poorer areas.”

An airport spokesman said that 90% of current flights take off to the south over Burbank, then turn west over North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Van Nuys. The eastbound takeoff would route the planes over portions of Burbank and Glendale.

Opponents of the amendment contended that it would set a bad precedent by putting political pressure on air-safety decisions and by encouraging other noise-battered communities to plead for special help from Congress.

“If we get into the business of having airports decide where planes fly, it will be an enormously dangerous precedent,” Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) said. Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) noted that Congress had never held a hearing on the surprise amendment. And Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), observing that “dozens of airports in Southern California would love to have the committee resolve their disputes,” said the matter ought to be settled locally.

Calls Berman ‘a Liar’

After the vote, Robert W. Garcin, president of the airport authority, angrily called Berman “a liar” in a telephone interview and said, “The whole damn measure is ludicrous.”

“Just where in hell does he get off complaining about noise?” Garcin asked. “ We have solved the noise problem. We have the quietest fleet of planes in the country going in and out of this airport.”

Tim Cole, legislative liaison for the FAA, called the legislation “an unwarranted intrusion” into the FAA’s control of air traffic.

“I don’t know how you enforce it,” he said in an interview.

The airport’s east-west runway has been closed for 16 months because the FAA said it is located too close to the passenger terminal. The airport plans to reopen the runway after a new terminal is built, but spokesman Victor Gill said that pilots consider eastbound takeoffs risky because planes would have to climb quickly over the Verdugo Mountains and frequently they would not be climbing into prevailing westerly winds, the preferred condition for takeoff.

Takeoffs Held Safe

However, Berman said that he had been told by pilots and traffic controllers that such takeoffs would be safe under most conditions.

In any case, Mineta said, the amendment allows both FAA controllers and captains of airliners to veto takeoffs to the east if they are deemed unsafe.

“We’re saying we would like to see an equal number of flights use Runway 7,” the east-west strip, “but the FAA and pilots have final determination on safety. That is nothing unusual,” Mineta said.

Moorhead complained that “this amendment makes the issue of safety a political issue and holds hostage the development” of new general aviation facilities that were to be partly financed by $30 million to $40 million in federal improvement grants.

Moorhead said he is confident that the Senate will throw out the amendment because “it doesn’t make sense and I don’t think there will be a split along party lines.”

Berman said that the main objective of his amendment was “to club them (the airport authority) on the head. I’m saying, ‘If you get serious about developing (an anti-noise) plan, we can talk about removing or changing the legislation.’ ”