Palomar Airport: The Not Necessarily Unsafe Airport, Blog #51

The County Palomar Airport website tells us that it is “not necessarily unsafe” for Palomar Airport, an FAA B-rated airport, to serve larger and faster aircraft rated C and D. [See last week’s discussion of Palomar FAQ 22.]   It seems odd for Palomar to bill itself as the “not necessarily unsafe” airport.

But the County has a reason.    

County Palomar Runway Extension Frequently Asked Question [FAQ] 23

The County Palomar Airport website lists Frequently Asked Questions and answers to show that the Kimley-Horn Runway Study justifies expanding Palomar.

“County FAQ 23 provides:  If the airport is not fully designed for the C/D category business jets, why not ban them from using it?”

“County FAQ Answer: Per FAA regulations, airport sponsors (such as County Airports) that receive grant funding from the FAA cannot limit size and scope of aircraft operations from their airport.  … [T]he decision to use the airport is left to the operator and pilots of the particular aircraft under the guidance of FAA”.

In essence, the County says the County has no say in what aircraft use Palomar.

The County Can and Has Limited Aircraft in the Past

As noted in Blog #20, “Palomar Airport: Can the County Contain Palomar Growth?,” federal law does not require airports to operate with obstructions such as methane-emitting landfill “safety” and approach areas that create undue risks.  Federal law (Section 105(a) of the Airline Deregulation Act) expressly preserves the right of local entities to exercise their proprietary powers to protect local interests.

Moreover, for many years the County Board of Supervisors had in place Palomar Airport Policy F-44 that limited passenger aircraft using Palomar to those below a certain seat capacity.  The County can hardly say that it has no ability to limit aircraft when it did so for many years. 

Also, in 2006, the FAA said when responding to a County Palomar Airport noise study: “… [I]t is within an airport sponsor’s discretion however, to develop or not develop airport facilities to serve larger aircraft and to make known to pilots the physical limitations of the airfield.” [See page 11-21 of Palomar Airport FAR Part 150 Study Update of June 2, 2006 prepared by URS].

To improve Palomar Airport safety, the County should minimize FAA-rated C and D aircraft at Palomar.  Don’t expand airport hangar facilities or fuel facilities.   Close the money losing customs facility.  Don’t extend the runway to serve even larger corporate and commercial aircraft.  

Fix the Runway Safety and Approach Areas at Both Ends of the Runway

But assume the County won’t limit aircraft size.  What should the County do?

Recall that the Palomar  “B” runway safety and approach areas are too short to handle large jets that miss the runway.  And too unstable to support the weight of jets that could crash or skid onto the Palomar landfill adjacent to the runway. 

The Palomar east runway end has 1500 feet of sandy landfill area that could provide an FAA approved runway safety area of 1000 feet for FAA-rated C and D aircraft.  The landfill could also serve FAA-rated approach areas for C and D aircraft.

But the County does not want to spend money to 1) retrofit the landfill methane collection system to withstand large airplane crashes, 2) install a landfill liner to prevent aviation fuel from flooding the fill, or 3) stabilize the fill to support heavy jets and firefighting equipment assisting a downed plane.

In other words, the County wishes to make money from FAA C and D-rated aircraft without meeting their FAA runway safety and approach design requirements.

How do we know that the County wants to attract C and D aircraft?  Because the County keeps making improvements for such aircraft.   The County beefed up the runway pavement strength, increased hangar space, increased the airport fuel capacity, created a customs facility, and now wants to extend the runway.

As the FAA told the County in 2006, problems can be avoided at Palomar by not making improvements to attract larger planes that increase noise or cause other problems incompatible with the local airport and surrounding communities. 

Perhaps the County could make Palomar safe rather than bill Palomar as the not necessarily unsafe airport.