EVEN LARGER JETS AT SANTA MONICA AIRPORT?
By Theresa
Hulme
WHAT!?!?!
Did
you read that correctly? Did I really just say LARGER jets at Santa Monica
Airport?! Is this a cruel joke? A living nightmare? Was it something I said?
Upon hearing the news, I calmly took a deep
breath and nearly choked on freshly spewed mid-morning jet fuel. Gasping for
air, I stared out my window upwards towards the heavens desperately searching
for God, Buddha, Moses or Mary but instead saw a corporate jet. I thought I was
having an acid flashback then remembered I’ve never done acid. At least
not yet. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Puzzled, I focused more intensely.
Suddenly, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s steroid ravaged body morphed over the
low flying aircraft. I recalled (no pun intended) someone telling me that the
Hollywood actor has been using the celebrity friendly airport. I’ll be
Back, I whispered humorously to myself. Such environmentalists, those
Republicans!
The latest proposals introduced
by the FAA to allow larger jets to use the nation’s so-called relief
airports are under intense speculation. Santa Monica Airport, a designated
‘relief airport’ already has aircraft launching and landing that
exceed its design capacity. The new proposal would make the FAA’s unsafe
and irresponsible policies even more absurd and dangerous.
Teterboro Airport, a general aviation
public airport in New Jersey with close proximity to NYC, has also seen
increases in private jet operation in recent years. Fractional jet ownership,
which allows one jet to have multiple owners is perhaps the largest cause of the
increased traffic. Mega millionaire Warren Buffett endorsed the strategy as the
trend became extremely popular among the wealthy. Strangely, the FAA
categorizes the corporate business jet class as ‘general aviation’
and not the more appropriate ‘commercial aviation’ which would put
the jets back where they belong: LAX.
Presently, the weight restriction at
SM Airport is roughly 60,000 pounds landing and roughly 73,000 pounds at take
off. The difference between the two numbers is the amount of fuel on board. The
wing span max is about 78 feet. The new plan would allow planes beyond 100,000
pounds with wing spans of 95 feet. Boeing actually makes a 737 aircraft that
falls just at the maximum.
Needless
to say, 737’s are much noisier and emit much more pollution than the jets
that presently harass us. Imagine a Southwest Airlines plane 500 feet over your
house. In addition, the fuel used to power the jets are, as we saw on 9/11, a
colossal disaster when an accident occurs. With the hundreds of thousands of
human lives in the crossfire of the jet path, the new legislation has monumental
safety implications. The runway at SM airport is already sub-standard in
accommodating present jet traffic. Larger jets using the airport is not only
unsafe, it is outright insane.
Airport manager Bob Trimborn stated
that the chances of the new plan being implemented are
“unrealistic.” Conversely, the present abuse of the jet operations
at the airport also seem ‘unrealistic’ but are ‘real’
every single day. Further, the end of the runway does not extend into an open
field or an ocean or even a long grassy knoll. It is met with houses whose
occupants purchased the homes during the more peaceful reign of a “NO
JETS” policy. Residents fondly remember the days of the NO JETS! sign
posted at the end of the runway.
U.S.
aerospace giant Boeing Aircraft builds military, commercial and private
aircraft. It also engineers cutting edge technology for missiles and weapons
manufacturing. Some of the WMD’s are housed right here in the Golden State
under the guise of defense and homeland security. However, much of
Boeing’s creations of destruction are sold to foreign governments around
the globe, including the Third World. Incidentally, international arms sales are
one of the most profitable exports of the American economy.
Facing legal troubles and needing to
increase sales of jet aircraft following the Iraq debacle & the present
economic crisis, Boeing is pressuring the FAA to release weight based
restrictions so that it has access to Teterboro for business purposes. The FAA
proposal states that airports across the nation will be forced to accept
aircraft beyond their design capacity a certain percentage of the time. Though
the bill sounds preposterous, the FAA is infamous for passing legislation that
caters to multi-national corporate interests regardless of the toll on the human
population. And since the government and military are one and the same, the
battle between local communities and the Bush Regime’s monolithic
corporate lobby is, at the very least, a ludicrously unfair game.
The far reaching consequences of the
FAA agenda penetrates the very heart of democracy and exposes the transparency
within our government at a time when Americans are growing ever more suspicious
of the Bush Regime’s secretive closed door procedures. The Regime
sneakily passes bills that steal our freedoms, murder our environment and
essentially make a mockery of justice. With deceptively titled bills such as
“Clear Skies,” the Regime, with its monopoly on the right wing
fundamentalist corporate media, authors legislation with unashamed deceit.
The Conservation Committee of the
Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council devoted its Sept. 25 meeting to a
discussion of the airport. The group voted to begin a Sub-Committee exclusively
targeting airport issues. Volunteers responded quickly to the need for organized
community involvement.
As the
Sub-committees are forming, neighborhoods affected by the pollution and noise
are banding together to pressure elected officials. Citizens attended from
Venice, Santa Monica, L.A. and as far away as Beverly Hills. With Rose Ave. and
Pico Blvd under the flight path, hundreds of thousands of people are at risk if
an accident occurs. For more info on what your neighborhood is doing and who to
contact, please call Martin Rubin at 310-479-2529.
Check out the website
<jetairpollution.com>.
Posted: Wed - October 1, 2003 at 07:05 PM