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Residents tell the FAA planners to take a hike
SJ 'is going to have more delayed flights on departures,' says SJC chairperson
By Chantal Lamers
Residents flocked in from San Jose, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Cupertino and Los Gatos. About 400 South Bay residents told Federal Aviation Administration officials they want FAA's plan to reroute 600 jetliners a day over the Silicon Valley to crash and burn.
The FAA's public hearing on May 2, was prompted in late April after San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales discovered the rerouting plan. Under the proposal, flights bound for San Francisco International Airport will fly over the valley to alleviate weather delays at SFO.
Mitch Barker, FAA regional spokesperson, said SFO-bound planes will cross valley skies when weather conditions in San Francisco don't permit enough open runways. If approved by FAA officials in August, Barker said, the proposal will not affect air traffic at San Jose International Airport.
But with about 370 flights landing at SJC daily, valley skies may have to carry as many as 1,000 planes a day if the FAA approves the proposal. That's because the valley will most likely become the standard approach path for SFO-bound planes, said SFO spokesman Ron Wilson.
Nationally, airports have a 75 percent average of on-time arrivals. SFO maintains the worst average of international airports nationwide, with a 55 percent on-time arrival rate. According to Wilson, SFO experiences bad weather that would delay arriving flights or close the airport about one-third of the year.
New equipment, part of the Simultaneous Offset Instrument Approach/ Precision Runway Monitor Project, is proposed as a temporary plan to reduce delays. The permanent solution, says Wilson, is to build new runways further out into the bay. That project won't be completed until 2006-07 at the earliest.
SFO's two runways are only 750 feet apart, which means arriving flights can't make simultaneous approaches during bad weather.
In the meantime, SFO and the FAA are proposing to use the new instrument approach system. But for pilots to use the instrument system, the approaches would have to be changed to give aircraft a longer final approach.
Currently, planes headed for SFO begin their final approach by lining up with runways 28L or 28R from seven to 10 miles south of the 1airport, says FAA spokesperson Barker. The new instrument approach system would require a final approach of about 16 to 19 miles, which means all incoming air traffic would begin to converge above the southernmost end of San Francisco Bay.
Brooks Mancini, SJC commission chairperson, said the FAA apparently didn't do a report on how the proposal would affect SJC. "It's going to have a major effect," he said. "I'm not a rocket scientist, but it doesn't take much to figure out what's going to go on here."
Mancini said the FAA won't allow planes from SJC to take off when there is a string of SFO-bound traffic in the air. "The FAA's purpose is to maintain safety--[it's] not going to risk sending a plane into traffic. San Jose is going to have more delayed flights on departures," he said.
FAA officials have extended the public comment period until July 7 and may hold more public meetings. They estimate they'll make a decision by Aug. 1. If it's approved, the plan could take effect by August 2001.
Residents and local government officials asked the FAA to look into alternatives so valley residents won't be forced to carry the burden of SFO's weather delays.
Many residents said the plan made them suspicious of the FAA. Some residents said the FAA shifted the flight pattern over the valley to stop noisy planes from flying over affluent peninsula neighborhoods. Due to potential noise, environmental, air quality and safety measures, residents asked FAA officials to go back to the drawing board.
At the meeting residents cheered when the first speaker, Mayor Gonzales, told FAA officials to hold more meetings throughout the South Bay before making their decision.
Cupertino Mayor John Stanton echoed Gonzales and said the Cupertino City Council unanimously opposed the proposal. Saratoga Vice Mayor John Mehaffey said Saratoga's city council was opposed as did Los Gatos Mayor Joe Pirzynski. Campbell and Sunnyvale officials also voiced their opposition to the proposal.
FAA spokesperson Barker said the noise level from SFO planes should increase noise by about 0.1 decibels. He said the FAA determined the noise increase through a computer noise-generation modeling program. FAA officials say that planes bound for SFO will be flying at 6,000 to 8,000 feet over the valley and the noise increase will be barely noticeable, but residents aren't taking their word.
One San Jose resident didn't believe that noise would be so little affected by so many jetliners. "There is enough money in the Silicon Valley to figure out if that's right or if that's wrong," he said.
San Jose resident Dave Kerby lives under SJC's flight path and said he doesn't know what he'll do if one more plane flies over his home. The 22-year resident said the noise and pollution have gotten worse each year. "We're already choking to death," Kerby said. "We don't need that."
The FAA will accept written comments from the public that are postmarked by July 7. Send comments to: Parsons, Attention: Robert Bruneck, 2233 Watt Ave., #330, Sacramento, 95825.
Staff writer Jeff Kearns contributed to this report.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
