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# FAA, City Council to discuss safety enhancements, jet ban
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/faa-city-council-to-discuss-safety-enhancements-jet-ban/
- Published: 2008-03-25T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T18:56:50.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*City officials expected to meet with FAA tonight*

CITY HALL The long-standing safety issues involving the fastest jets at the Santa Monica Airport will take center stage tonight as the City Council and federal aviation officials attempt a solution to quell fears about a possible runway overshoot.

Kirk Shaffer, the associate administrator for airports, and city officials are expected to meet during the council meeting over the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) proposal to install a security buffer system at the west end of the runway. The proposal was submitted on March 7, just days before the council was scheduled to ratify an ordinance banning the fastest jets from the airport, a decision that could be legally contested by the FAA.

The council is again expected to take up the ordinance tonight.

The FAA is proposing to install an Emergency Material Arresting System (EMAS) — a series of concrete blocks that give way under the weight of an aircraft, slowing it down in case it overshoots the runway — that could handle a plane traveling at 70 knots. The FAA’s offer adds onto a previous proposal to install an EMAS that could accommodate a plane traveling up to 40 knots, a suggestion that city officials said was not sufficient.

The 70-knot buffer would be designed to stop roughly 97 percent of the operations at the airport, including 90 percent of C and D classified jets, which are the categories of aircraft that would be banned under the ordinance. The enhanced safety measure would consume more runway than the 40-knot EMAS, which the FAA previously opposed.

City Manager Lamont Ewell responded to the FAA’s letter on March 12, expressing concerns about the absence of an EMAS at the east end.

Ewell adds that while the FAA indicates about 97 percent of the airport’s operations occur on the west end, City Hall data places that figure between 94 and 97 percent, leaving a 3 to 6 percent margin of activity on the east side.

“It remains the city’s position that maximizing the safety for operators of aircraft, passengers and for residents living adjacent to the airport by applying FAA standards for runway safety areas is vital to the long-term interests of the airport,” Ewell states in the letter.

Residents living in the Sunset Park neighborhood, where the airport is located, have expressed concerns about safety risks associated with jet activity and the lack of precautionary measures on the runway, fueling fears about a plane one day overshooting the airstrip and landing on homes.

There have been at least two runway accidents in the past seven years at the airport, most recently in January when a single-engine model kit airplane rolled off the west end of the runway and landed on a service road. There were no reported injuries. In 2001, a Cessna crashed into the service road’s guardrail after attempting to take off, killing all occupants on board.

The FAA’s offer letter also includes a proposition to reduce noise and pollution by changing the alignment of aircraft on Runway 21 where the majority of flights take off, adjusting the line of planes so the emissions go away from the neighborhoods. The FAA is also offering adding information about the noise abatement procedures and lack of runway safety areas through electronic notifications sent to pilots who file their flight plans into or out of Santa Monica.

The agency is also testing a new departure procedure where pilots taking off from Santa Monica would not need clearance from LAX. Aviation officials say they expect the result to be less aircraft idling on the ground.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032508.pdf?ref=smdp.com)