FAA Plays Politics with Safety at LAX

Re: Steve Hymon’s LA Times “Article FAA Cites hazard at LAX site” 10/23/2007

A better headline would have been FAA Plays Politics with Safety.

THIS IS ALL ABOUT EXPANSION AT LAX, NOT SAFETY!

1. Prior to this year the north runway complex had a safer record than other airports' "fixed" complexes. Despite all of the safety "fixes" imposed on the south (adding increased spacing and a centerline taxiway) there still has been as many safety incursions on the south as have occurred on the north! And this experience is despite more of the load pushed north while the south runways were closed for construction.
2. The revelation that the FAA has been suppressing a NASA Air safety study to keep public confidence. Is it possible that selective reporting is used by the FAA? .
3. LAX Air Traffic Controller Union Leader, Mike Foote, notes that "maybe an incursion of the types seen on the north side might be averted once every four years by the proposed widening." Is this worth billions of dollars?
4. Local activists acknowledge the sudden jump in incursions this year on the north side and have called for increased tower staffing and installation of runway status lights. The FAA response, under intense local pressure, approved implementation by the END OF 2009! These lights have been in active use at several airports, but the FAA has kept them in the status of "experimental" since 1991.... If safety is critical--AND IT IS--why the long wait??? Politics perhaps?