Airport Accord ‘No Settlement at All’

When I read the article in your July 23 issue about a possible settlement on the problems between the City of Newport Beach and the Orange County Supervisors in the operation of the airport, I could hardly believe my eyes. The article stated that the “extremely quiet jets” which were starting to be used at the airport will allow an unlimited number of flights. I realize that the airlines advertise in your newspaper, but I did not know that your staff writers could deliberately misrepresent the facts. There is no such thing as an “extremely quiet jet.” In fact, there is no such thing as a “quiet jet” as of this date.

I live in Newport Beach, as do thousands of others, because I get horrible asthma when I try to live inland only 10 miles. I have moved four times in Newport Beach in an attempt to get away from the horrendous noise and pollution of the jets operating out of this terribly small, very dangerous airport. You should try living under several miles of the jet takeoff where all conversation stops when each jet comes over, or anywhere within many square miles of where the filthy exhaust falls on patios and is tracked in the homes unless the patios are hosed off every day.

If the article is correct that the supervisors are not going to establish a second airport as recommended by all studies, then this is no settlement at all but merely an easy postponement of the inevitable by the current Board of Supervisors.

N. H. SMEDEGAARD

Newport Beach