The strange saga of Palomar Airport.

As a Pigg lurker and occasional blogger, I couldn’t help commenting on jiggy’s recent post. I’m a private pilot who’s been flying in and out of Palomar for 18 years — i guess about 8 years longer than jiggy has lived under the flight path. (I’m thankful our paths have not crossed!)

Originally I thought I would blast jiggy for voicing the typical non-pilot irrational fear of aircraft and airports. However, when I began a little internet research to back up my views, I was surprised by what I found: there’s something not quite right about Palomar Airport.

First, let me clarify the one common misconception in jiggy’s post. There are over 15000 airports in the US. Of those, there are 562 with control towers. Reference the “Airport Certification Status Table” under:
http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/airports/resources/data_stats/
Although its rare for a commercial carrier to go to an uncontrolled (non-towered) airport, private pilots routinely fly in and out. When the tower closes, the airport becomes an uncontrolled airport. It’s the same airport and there should be no change in risk from aircraft operations.

And I also do take issue with the contention that aircraft are somehow noisier now. Prior posts have correctly pointed out that the noisiest aircraft, early model jets, are now pretty much retired. The famously loud Lear 23 and 25 were jokingly said to be best at turning jet fuel into noise.

What surprised me was the number of accidents at Palomar. I checked the NTSB database for the past 10 years. There were 6 accidents with 16 fatalities. Contrast that with a Montgomery field, which is a busier airport (671 operations ber day versus 591 at Palomar) with a bit more complex surrounding airspace. Montgomery had 1 accident with 2 fatalities — and that one occurred in 1999.

Palomar data:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/Response2.asp?spage=1&x_page_size=10&sql=Y&p1=1%2F1%2F1999&p2=1%2F15%2F2009&p3=carlsbad&p4=CA&p5=&p6=&p7=&p8=&p9=&p10=&p11=&p12=&p13=&p14=&p15=&p16=ev_date&p17=Desc&p18=&p19=&p20=&p21=&p22=&p23=&p24=

Montgomery accident:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20001205X00487&ntsbno=LAX99FA150&akey=1

Statistically, this shows an astounding concentration of accidents at Palomar. It has the same precision approach (ILS) as Montgomery, roughly the same control tower hours, the same approach control, and yet nearly an order of magnitude more accidents and fatalities.

I think jiggy’s right — there’s something wrong with Palomar. Unless there’s some form of mass stupidity affecting only the pilots flying into Palomar, the FAA needs to study Palomar procedures and change things.