Pilots of Jumbo Jets Warned on Landings at Lindbergh Field

The Federal Aviation Administration has warned pilots of jumbo jets landing at Lindbergh Field not to rely on the airport’s visual landing system because it could lead them to crash into the corner of a six-story parking garage near the runway, according to an FAA report released Thursday.

Despite that warning, the FAA report concludes that the Laurel Travel Center, 1025 W. Laurel St., does not pose a safety hazard to landing aircraft, although the structure is classified as an obstruction.

The report also said that a new, more sophisticated visual landing system scheduled for installation at Lindbergh in the fall will be able to guide jumbo-jet pilots over the parking garage with more than enough room to spare between their wheels and the structure.

The FAA’s conclusion of no safety hazard angered San Diego Unified Port District Commissioners Louis Wolfsheimer, who has been among a number of local officials who have called for the reduction or razing of the garage. Lindbergh Field is under Port District jurisdiction.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that one day a plane is going to hit that building,” Wolfsheimer said Thursday. “It’s not going to be on my watch. . . . I know the FAA can live with themselves if there is a terrible accident there. They are 3,000 miles away. But I couldn’t live with myself.

‘Fooling With People’s Lives’

“We’re fooling with people’s lives here,” added Wolfsheimer. “Doesn’t that thing look dangerous to you? I don’t care what the FAA says. They’re covering their asses. I think people’s lives are at risk with that thing.”

Wolfsheimer said he will begin immediately to initiate discussions between port commissioners and the San Diego City Council to see if the public agencies can buy and remove the top floors of the garage.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to work with the city to see, jointly, if we can’t get that building reduced in size, condemn a couple of floors in the building, to do something to remove the hazard,” said Wolfsheimer.

Building owner Samuel J. Kahn said he’s weary of the controversy and would be willing to sell out for the right price.

“We want it to go away, the whole issue,” said Kahn. “If the solution is to take off a couple of floors or completely raze the building, and the economic considerations involved in this condemnation are in agreement, we’re all in favor of that.”

The FAA report issued Thursday is the latest chapter in a controversy over the garage, which sits 710 feet away from the start of the Lindbergh runway. The building, the northwest corner of which measures 93.9 feet above sea level, was approved for construction by the FAA in 1984 and opened for business as a satellite parking garage for Lindbergh in May, 1986.

Angered that the FAA didn’t confer with it first, the Air Line Pilots Assn. wrote to the agency early this year to warn that the parking structure is an “accident waiting to happen.”

Answered Complaints

A pilot flying a 747 and approaching Lindbergh at the minimally accepted angle wouldn’t clear the garage, the ALPA warned. At the same angle, an L-1011 would clear the structure by only 1.8 feet and a DC-10 by 3.8 feet.

In May, the FAA answered complaints from the commercial pilots by saying a study of the garage showed it did not pose a safety hazard. But the federal agency did agree to spend $20,000 to upgrade the visual landing system at Lindbergh.

The existing system, called a Visual Approach Slope Indicator, or VASI, was installed more than 10 years ago and uses a series of lights on the runway to tell pilots whether they are flying too high or too low for a landing. Although the normal grade for a landing is 3 degrees at other airports, the VASI system at Lindbergh is geared to bring planes in between 4.5 and 4.25 degrees because of San Diego’s mountainous terrain.

Thus, pilots flying in too high will see all white lights. Those flying in too low, will see all red lights. Those within the correct angle of descent will see an even number of red and white lights.

Bowing to pressure from the pilots, the FAA agreed to replace the VASI with a more sophisticated system called the Precision Approach Path Indicator, or PAPI. This system uses a greater number of lights and, therefore, can help a pilot pinpoint a landing even better.

But that decision in May did little to quell the questions surrounding the garage and, under pressure from press reports and inquiries from politicians, the FAA announced last month that it would undertake yet another study of the structure.

Still Not a Hazard?

Thursday’s report is the result. But it also states, for the first time, that ALPA’s calculations on the potential of a crash are correct and discloses that pilots of jumbo jets are to discontinue use of the VASI for Lindbergh landings.

The agency said it will move to strike notations in the Instrument Approach Procedures, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, recommending that jumbo jets use the VASI system. “In the interim, a Notice to Airmen has been issued and will remain in effect which suspends the VASI authorization for use by long-bodied or jumbo aircraft,” the report says.

FAA spokeswoman Elly Brekke added: “The FAA is saying we had to reevaluate the structure and the original information we provided is not the best information and that procedure needed to be revised.”

Brekke said there should be no concern about safe landings at Lindbergh, since all pilots are supposed to be briefed on bulletins about changes in landing procedures.

“The airline pilots who are operating the DC-10, the L1011 and the 747s are highly professional pilots,” said Brekke. “We are confident of their ability, and we know they check their Notices to Airmen. Even if they don’t fly into Lindbergh regularly, we know that they check.

“The point is, we have told them not to rely on the VASI for giving them course guidance into the landing point.”

Instrument Landings

Instead of using the lights, jumbo jet pilots will be asked to let their instruments guide them into Lindbergh, said another FAA spokesman.

Once the more sophisticated PAPI system is installed in November, jumbo jet pilots will again be able to use the lights for guidance into Lindbergh, according to the FAA report.

The PAPI will project a glide path that allows nearly 123 feet between the wheels of a 747 and the garage, the report says. For a DC-10, the clearance will be 133 feet and for an L-1011, 131 feet.

Each week, 14 L-1011s, 47 DC-10s and two 747s land at Lindbergh, airport officials say.