By Lookout Staff
July 10 -- Santa Monica’s ban on larger, faster jets at the city’s municipal airport is likely headed to federal court after the Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday upheld an earlier decision by an FAA hearing officer that the law discriminates against certain aircraft types.
The 57-page opinion rejecting the City’s appeal upheld the hearing officer’s finding in May that the ban violates the terms of federal grants the City receives and that the local law "unjustly and unreasonably" discriminates against C and D aircraft
The City contends that it has the power to ban jets to protect neighboring homes from runaway aircraft -- such as Cessna Citations, Gulfstreams and Challengers -- with speeds of between 139 and 191 mph.
The FAA hearing officer concluded that such aircraft have a better safety record than propeller aircraft at the airport and have never been involved in a crash there.
The City Council must now decide whether to challenge the FAA decision in federal court.
FAA officials have said the law, which the City Council adopted in April 2008, is unnecessary, illegally discriminates against aircraft types and harms jet operators.
City officials counter that law only imposes the federal agency’s own runway standards and is necessary to safeguard neighboring residents who live just hundreds of feet from the runway.
Wednesday’s decision upholds a ruling by Anthony N. Palladino, a senior FAA attorney and hearing officer, who found that the Santa Monica ordinance violated a 1984 agreement between the FAA and the City.
The agreement, Palladino said, gives the federal agency final authority over safety issues at the 63-year-old municipal airport.
Palladino also said the ordinance, which the FAA challenged shortly after it was passed, violates the terms of $9.7-million-worth of federal grants received by the airport.
The City has called the FAA’s challenge a “legal assault” on an ordinance responding to increasing concerns that soaring jet traffic -- from 4,829 jet operations in 1994 to 15,710 last year -- is putting neighboring homes, as well as pilots, in danger.
