Is a proposal by the Federal Aviation Administration to change flight paths for planes over Point Loma just a plan or a fait accompli?
That’s the underlying question in the continuing battle over the FAA’s SoCal Metroplex project. That proposal seeks to improve the efficiency of airspace in Southern California by optimizing aircraft arrival and departure procedures at more than 20 regional airports, including San Diego’s.
The FAA says the project, which just closed public comment Oct. 8 and is currently being reviewed by the federal agency, is strictly an idea.
But as recently as Oct. 4, a crowd of about 1,000 riled Peninsulans turned out at a special meeting at Liberty Station to protest the project. Several questioned the federal department’s integrity, claiming proposed flight changes outlined in the project’s draft environmental document are already in place.
Many Peninsulans have said they want the FAA to consider retaining the LOWMA waypoint latitude-longitude navigational guide, which for more than 20 years, has limited aircraft flying over Point Loma. They argue that deviating from that waypoint will bring more flights, more noise and more pollution over more areas heretofore unaffected.
San Diego Airport’s Noise Mitigation Department was queried by the Peninsula Beacon, asking it whether the FAA’s proposed Peninsula flight plan changes are a possibility or an actuality.
“The FAA’s SoCal Metroplex plan has not yet been implemented,” answered the Noise Mitigation Department’s team. “SAN conducts approximately 525 flight operations each day. This includes takeoffs and landings for passenger and cargo aircraft. Of those, only about 6 to 7 percent represent takeoffs in which aircraft turn south upon takeoff and fly over the community of Point Loma. That number remained constant in September and October.”
The airport, however, said a larger-than-usual number of “early turns” (when an aircraft travels outside a prescribed air corridor upon takeoff) was recorded over Point Loma in September: 18, compared with six the previous month. Those early turns, the airport said, brought the aircraft over Point Loma instead of bypassing the peninsula to the south.
“The vast majority of these early turns were performed by general aviation aircraft, not airliners,” noted the Airport Authority, which added, “discussions are ensuing with the FAA, general aviation operators and the airlines in the hopes of minimizing the number of early turns in the future.”
Point Loman Casey Schnoor, who launched a petition drive opposing the SoCal Metroplex plan that has garnered 3,600 signatures to date, said federal and airport officials are telling the truth – but not the “whole” truth.
The real truth, Schnoor argues, is that the number of planes deviating from the LOWMA navigational waypoint, meant to limit plane flights over the Peninsula, has gradually been “creeping up” over the years.
“Where the confusion comes in is that air traffic controllers have the authority to direct planes, and they’ve been directing them to skip the LOWMA waypoint,” Schnoor said. He claimed that an agreement negotiated years ago by San Diego legislators including Byron Wear and Brian Bilbray, the so-called “Red Dot Agreement” referring to radar screen dots restricting flights over the Peninsula, is gradually being “worn away” over time.
“Somewhere along the way, around 2009, the FAA started ‘chipping away’ at that Red Dot Agreement, allowing more flyovers of the Peninsula,” contended Schnoor. “The FAA says nothing has changed. That’s because it’s been several years since they started cheating on the (Red Dot) agreement.”
“If the LOWMA waypoint goes away, there will be no constraint whatsoever for them (planes) to avoid flying over the Peninsula,” claimed Schnoor, adding, “Those flights will then start flying over the Point, opening up the Peninsula to all the impacts – noise, visual and fuel pollution, loss of property values, etc.”