Travel disrupted, flights canceled

Marisa O’Neil

Air travel returned to normal Wednesday after a communication outage

grounded flights throughout Southern California on Tuesday evening,

canceling 64 flights here in Orange County. It caused later flights

to leave after the airport’s curfew.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why radio

communication failed at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control

Center in Palmdale for nearly five hours on Tuesday. The outage

started just before 5 p.m. and kept hundreds of flights grounded at

seven airports until about 8:30 p.m. when communications started

coming back on line.

The outage was due to “an event that should’ve been avoided had

strict FAA operating and maintenance procedures been followed,”

according to an FAA release.

A required 30-day maintenance check on radio and voice

communication systems was not performed, according to the press

release.

“This system turns off if this check is not performed,” the press

release stated. “Also, the backup radio communications system was not

configured properly to ensure its availability in the event of the

primary system’s failure.”

Officials at John Wayne Airport did what they could to get as many

planes in and out before the 11:30 p.m. curfew for arrivals,

spokesman Justin McCusker said. They extended that curfew Tuesday

night by 30 minutes, he added.

“We made a choice to help passengers and accommodate the incoming

flights that were not canceled and delayed the curfew to 10:30 [p.m.]

for departures and 11:30 for arrivals.”

McCusker did not know how many flights took off or landed after

the curfew, he said.

The curfews -- part of the John Wayne settlement agreement between

the county, the city of Newport Beach, Stop Polluting Our Newport,

Airport Working Group and the FAA -- restrict flight hours to reduce

air-traffic noise.

The 30-minute curfew extension did not concern Airport Working

Group Vice President Richard Taylor, but it just goes to show that

the county needs another major airport to accommodate travelers, he

said.

“There are too many jets, too many people traveling and not enough

airports,” he said.

Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway agreed that the short curfew

extension in that situation was not an issue.

“I think if I were in their shoes, I would be more concerned about

safety of passengers than the noise curfew,” Ridgeway said.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].