Federal appeals court blocks Santa Monica from banning some jets

A federal appeals court has upheld a legal order obtained by the Federal Aviation Administration that prohibits Santa Monica from banning the fastest private jets from its municipal airport until the FAA’s review of the restriction is complete.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals left in place a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge George Wu last May to halt implementation of a controversial jet ban that the Santa Monica City Council adopted in late 2007.

Because of city agreements with the government that bar unjust discrimination against particular aircraft, federal justices stated that Santa Monica was unlikely to prevail when the FAA rules on whether to approve the city’s jet ban.

They also noted that the jets have a good safety record at the airport and that the ban would disrupt air traffic in the region, which was not in the public interest.

An FAA examiner, who held four days of administrative hearings on the issue earlier this year, is expected to rule by the end of the week. The decision can be appealed to the FAA’s associate administrator for policy, planning and environment. Subsequent appeals can be made in federal court.

Santa Monica has sought to prohibit jets with landing speeds of 139 mph to 191 mph from using the airport, which sits on a plateau a few hundred feet from residential and commercial areas of the city. Though the fast jets have never crashed at the airport, city officials contend the planes are at risk of running off the runway.

The restriction would affect so-called category C and D jets, which include such models as the Gulfstream IV, Challenger 604 and Cessna Citation X. Before the recession, such aircraft accounted for about 9,000 takeoffs and landings a year, or about 7% of flight operations, many of them involving trips by corporate executives.

The appeals court issued a written ruling Friday. Santa Monica officials contend that the preliminary injunction should not have been approved because the FAA failed to grant the city a hearing and did not make a formal determination of the ban’s legality before taking steps to block it.

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dan.weikel@latimes.com