Saturday, September 03, 2011

Santa Monica: Plane Crash Prompts Trip to Washington. Officials will visit the Federal Aviation Administration to review flight school leases at Santa Monica Airport.

The plane crash that occurred Monday afternoon in Santa Monica is prompting city officials to renew efforts to re-examine flight schools at Santa Monica Airport, according to a staff memo released late Friday.

In the wake of the crash, city staff will go to Washington, D.C., to meet with Federal Aviation Administration officials; review flight school leases; and meet with flight school operators.

Around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, a single-engine Cessna flown by a student pilot traveling across the country crashed into a home near 21st and Navy streets during an attempt to land at SMO.

No one died in the crash, but the pilot suffered a broken leg, and a painter who was working on the house also sustained injuries. According to a memo, a second worker was injured as well, and no one was in the house at the time of the crash.

The pilot had rented a plane from one of the SMO flight schools, according to the memo, which was sent by Public Works Director Martin Pastucha to Mayor Richard Bloom and the Santa Monica City Council. The accident is the first one known to have involved a student pilot directly associated with an SMO flight school.

"This terrible near-tragic plane crash has generated many inquires about increased regulation of flight schools at SMO," Pastucha and Kate Vernez, assistant to City Manager Rod Gould, wrote in the memo. They also noted that, in the wake of the accident, members of the Santa Monica community have requested that the city review flight school activity at SMO.

(Santa Monica Patch readers have been extensively discussing the plane crash and flight schools at SMO.)

Regarding the plans to meet with FAA officials, review flight school leases and meet with flight school operators, Pastucha and Vernez noted that flight schools have been "a prescribed activity" per the 1984 Settlement Agreement with the FAA.

"The city alone cannot restrict flight school operations outside of the Santa Monica Municipal Code, Federal Air Regulations or provisions of their respective lease agreements," they wrote.

In reviewing the flight school leases, city staff plan "to ascertain what flexibility we have in relation to their operations."

As for the meeting with the flight school operators, city staff will "discuss strategies to lessen their impact on the community."

In addition to those efforts, a special meeting of the city council—during which preliminary research findings on SMO will be presented—will be held Oct. 4. Also, multiple community workshops will be staged from the fall through April.

After that, city staff will begin a final planning process in the lead-up to the 2015 expiration of the 1984 Settlement Agreement.

"The expiration of the 1984 Agreement presents opportunities for the city to determine what is in the best interests of the city and its citizens," Pastucha and Vernez wrote.


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