I can understand King County Councilmember Dow Constantine's desire to protect his West Seattle constituents from unnecessary airplane noise as espoused in his recent political ad in your newspaper.

But as a King County Council member he has, I'm sure, an overriding desire to protect the best interests of all citizens within King County. That would include protecting the safety of the residents of Magnolia, who are at daily risk by living under the unnecessary flight paths of airplanes landing from the north at Boeing Field.

Apparently Councilmember Constantine has been given some bad advice, which has poisoned this debate by pitting one neighborhood against another. This is not about Magnolia vs. West Seattle. This is about Seattleites doing what is in the best interest of Seattleites.

The residents of Magnolia are not asking to have planes start flying over West Seattle, but simply asking the FAA to re- direct their approach to Boeing Field by a mere 7 degrees. This still keeps them far enough from West Seattle to not increase noise levels, studies have confirmed. More importantly, it puts the planes over water where the only fall-out is causing some salmon to be more sleepless in Seattle. This is basically the same route that planes to and from SeaTac already take.

For Magnolia, this is much more a safety issue than a noise issue. Why should we always have to wait for a tragedy to be the impetus for change? With today's technology this slight swing of landing approaches is easily achievable, but makes a profound impact on avoiding potential catastrophes.

And this has no negative impact on West Seattle despite overly emotional rhetoric to the contrary.

Dr. Victor J. Barry

President

Magnolia Community Club