"Corona aviation task force weighs findings about airport safety"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Corona aviation task force weighs findings about airport safety
By PAIGE AUSTIN
The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise


CORONA - The city's aviation task force completed its fact-finding mission
this week and is slated to draft findings next month about Corona's aviation
safety.

Since its inception in the aftermath of a midair plane crash that killed
five people in January, the nine-member panel has struggled to answer one
question: Is Corona reasonably safe from plane crashes?

Four people in the air and an employee at a car dealership were killed Jan.
20 when two planes collided near Corona Municipal Airport, sending bodies
and wreckage falling onto two dealerships below.

It was the city's third midair crash in a decade, and there have been more
fatal plane wrecks in Corona than in any other Inland airport community.

At its final fact-finding meeting Tuesday, the Mayor's Task Force on
Aviation Safety acknowledged the challenges in coming to an agreement about
the community's safety.

"It's about, 'Are we safe,' and if we are, let's tell everybody that we're
safe," said Richard Haley, task force chairman.

Task force member Traci Rodriguez cautioned against recommending changes
that would appease public hysteria about plane wrecks while doing little to
make the airport safer.

"It's about considering things we can recommend to increase aviation safety,
not the public's perception of aviation safety," she said.

And still task force member and City Councilman Steve Nolan offered his
interpretation of safety conditions at the airport.

"We have, on the ground, a reasonable perception that it is dangerous and
that it could happen again," he said.

At a public meeting next month, the task force will attempt to draft its
findings and make recommendations for the Corona City Council to follow. The
task force could conclude that Corona's airport and skyways are perfectly
safe, and it could opt to make no recommendations to the City Council, Haley
said. It could also present majority and dissenting opinions to the council
similar to a Supreme Court ruling, he said.

Finally, it could recommend that the city make safety changes ranging from
posting safety procedures at the airport to more drastic changes such as
building an air traffic control tower or altering the airport's landing
pattern.

This week, the task force was also given a series of reports and letters
between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration from 1998.

Two planes had collided that year and fallen into a home and an apartment
building below, killing three people onboard the planes.

After studying the wreck, FAA officials urged the city to move the airport's
landing pattern from the south side of the airport to the north. According
to the FAA officials, the south side landing pattern places planes circling
the airport to land too close to passing airplane traffic that follows
Highway 91.

According to the FAA, the northern landing pattern would place descending
planes above a less populated area of the city, including the Prado
wetlands. However, the city balked at the recommendation, concluding that it
would create noise and safety issues for the bluff-top neighborhood to the
north of the airport. In the end, the city did not make the change.

"This city put the buildings within the pattern. The city has grown up
around the airport," Nolan said. "We need to be open-minded about altering
the landing pattern so it's not so close to the through air traffic."


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