Santa Monica crash renews debate on airport's safety Douglas Aircraft Co. built its famous DC-3s there, and in 1924 it was the jumping-off point for U.S. Army pilots who were the first to circumnavigate the globe by air. The first woman to fly the U.S. Mail began her milestone flight in Santa Monica in 1938. More recently, actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and casino mogul Steve Wynn have been among the celebrities and business tycoons who have kept planes there. But the oldest operating airport in Los Angeles County has become the most embattled general aviation facility in the nation as housing tracts, started during the Douglas years, moved right up to its boundaries. Concerned about noise, pollution and safety, those well-heeled Westside communities have been pushing city officials for years to either close the airport or slash flight operations - demands that intensified after Sunday's crash of a private jet that slammed into a hangar, killing at least two people. The fiery crash, which occurred as the plane landed after a flight from Idaho, is believed to be the first fatal accident involving a jet in the airport's history. The impact and fire collapsed the hangar's steel roof onto part of the aircraft as well as planes stored inside. Morley Builders of Santa Monica announced Monday that its chief executive, Mark Benjamin, 63, and his son Luke, 28, are believed to have been killed. It remains unclear whether others were in the plane. Residents near the airport and community activists say the crash of the twin-engine Cessna Citation 525A reflects some of their worst fears because the plane came to rest about 150 feet from homes near the northwest section of the airfield. "It's a warning of what could really happen," said John Fairweather, founder of Community Against Santa Monica Airport Traffic. Obviously we are saddened by those who lost their lives in that plane. Our concern is what would have happened if it hit houses and the fire spread beyond the hangar. There have been at least 11 crashes involving planes coming and going from Santa Monica since 1989, according to federal records. Six were confined to airport grounds, two struck homes, two came down in the ocean and one crashed on a golf course. The airport had about 7,300 takeoffs and landings in August, the most recent month for which data was available. Some community activists are pushing to turn the 227-acre airport into a park. They say that the federal requirements and leases to operate a large portion of the property as an airport, including a section of runway, end in 2015. "We hope it's a wake-up call," David Goddard, chairman of the Santa Monica Airport Commission, said of Sunday's crash. "Now we hope the City Council will take the next step" and reduce flights. But the Federal Aviation Administration asserts that Santa Monica must operate the airport in perpetuity under a 1948 transfer agreement reached when the facility was returned to the city after World War II. Agency officials have vowed to protect the interests of pilots and aviation-related businesses. The fate of the airport has been debated for decades. When jets began operating at Santa Monica in the 1960s, the city imposed restrictions and, at one point, a total jet ban, which aviation advocates successfully challenged in court in the 1970s. With the advent of more powerful private jets, the city voted in 2007 to ban high-performance aircraft with fast landing speeds, such as larger Gulfstreams, Bombardier Challengers and some Cessna Citations. The aircraft involved in Sunday's crash was not one of the barred models. The Federal Aviation Administration later struck down the ban because it discriminated against aircraft types, a decision that was upheld by a federal appeals court. The closure of Santa Monica has long been opposed by pilots, airport-related businesses and national aviation organizations, such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. They caution that the cause of the crash has not been determined and it was unlikely the jet could have entered a nearby neighborhood because of a protective berm, landscaping and a wall. "Let's find out what happened first before we speculate," said Bill Dunn, the association's vice president of airport advocacy. The reality is that accidents occur, and the reality is that more people have been killed on bike paths and in fatal car accidents in Santa Monica than in airplanes. Robert Chandler, a veteran Santa Monica pilot whose vintage 1953 Cessna may have been damaged by the crash, said the airport has a good safety record and is a vital part of the region's transportation system. "To close it would be the equivalent of closing 10 miles of the Santa Monica Freeway," Chandler said. It's disingenuous to move next to an airport and then complain about it.