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Tracking of jets from the airport is set to begin
by Robb Fulcher
With a three-city purchase deal completed, local officials will soon be using a radar device to track jetliners overhead, in an ongoing battle to verify the nature and number of over-flights from LAX.
The device, a new weapon in the war against aircraft noise from LAX, was purchased for about $100,000 by the municipal governments of Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes.
"It should be up and running within 90 days," Hermosa Mayor JR Reviczky said on Friday.
The device uses radar to monitor airplanes' transponders, which beam out information on the planes' altitude, position and movements. All commercial planes flying in and out of LAX are required to carry the transponders, said Hermosa Councilman Sam Edgerton, who sits with Reviczky on the council's LAX subcommittee.
The Hermosa city council approved the three-way purchase of the device in April, and officials in Redondo and Rancho Palos Verdes followed suit.
Meanwhile, officials in Hermosa continue to await a lawyer's report on the possibility of legal action against the Federal Aviation Administration concerning the over-flights.
The Hermosa council in April lent its formal support to a separate lawsuit against the operators of LAX, filed by the city of El Segundo.
That lawsuit claims that Los Angeles World Airports has failed to file a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report for the planned expansion of LAX, and has improperly "continued to expand the capacity at the airport with the piecemeal approval of new projects including terminals, runways, and operating agreements."
The lawsuit, which also names as defendants the city of Los Angeles and the Board of Airport Commissioners, claims that the actions by the operators of LAX have violated the California Environmental Quality Act. ER