The Federal Aviation Administration has given the go-ahead to create a new sports stadium for the Los Angeles Rams football team a short distance from Los Angeles International Airport. Approval of the project had been delayed for nearly a year due to worries that the proposed location would interfere with flights in and out of the airport.
The stadium, whose price tag has been put at $1.86 billion, would be built in Inglewood, Calif. Planes flying into LAX would come in at an elevation of 600-700 feet above ground, and the proposed stadium’s highest point would be 273 feet off the ground. On Friday, the FAA gave its official approval to the project after the developer agreed to take extra precautions to prevent potential disasters.
“Under the agreement, the stadium owner will pay $29 million to install a secondary aircraft tracking system that will augment the existing LAX radar system. This will address FAA concerns that the stadium height would negatively affect air traffic control radar signals by creating false aircraft images or unstable images on controllers’ radarscopes,” said FAA Pacific Division spokesman Ian Gregor.
FAA routinely conducts air safety evaluations of private projects, though the agency does not have the authority to stop any construction outside of the immediate vicinity of airports. The agency’s reports, nevertheless, have great sway since the findings can determine legal liability should an accident happen.
The Rams moved from St. Louis in 2016 and have been playing at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a temporary home while the new stadium is being completed. A representative for the Rams could not be reached for comment.
In October 2015, the FAA issued a preliminary finding of hazard regarding the proposed Inglewood site. It said the site would affect “the quality and/or availability of LAX’s radar signals” and potentially result in “an increase in false beacon targets and target jumps and splits directly from the proposal.”
These were not trivial concerns, said Tom Ridge, former director of the Department of Homeland Security, and Mark Rosenker, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Any pilot will tell you that it is during takeoff and landings when aircraft are most vulnerable not only to engine complications, but also the new and dangerous threat of drone incursions and cockpit laser attacks. Keep in mind LAX is the world’s busiest origination and destination airport and planes fly over Inglewood every 90 seconds,” they said in a joint op-ed for the LA Daily News in 2015.
The two worked as consultants for AEG, an entertainment company that had previously been sought to build a stadium in the region. AEG also owns Clarity Media Group, which publishes the Washington Examiner. AEG has said it is no longer pursuing any stadium projects in the Los Angeles region.
