Firefighters from Carlsbad and four other cities have asked the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to review emergency services at McClellan-Palomar Airport in light of the increased commercial flights there.
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The recent return of service by American Airlines and United Airlines has greatly increased the number of passengers using the airport in Carlsbad over the last two years, according to the San Diego County Department of Public Works
Annual “enplanements,” a term for the number of people boarding a plane, went from 15,662 passengers in calendar 2024 to 67,601 passengers in 2025, according to the county. The total is projected to exceed 80,000 this year.
Carlsbad Councilmember Kevin Shin and representatives of firefighter associations in Carlsbad, Vista, San Marcos, Solana Beach and the San Bernardino County city of Ontario have sent letters expressing their concerns to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Ontario has an airport served by 11 airlines, compared to the two airlines now at Carlsbad.
“With increased passenger volumes, larger aircraft, and additional commercial carriers, the airport’s operational demands have changed significantly,” states a July 13 letter signed by Brandon Birse, president of the Carlsbad Firefighters Association.
“We believe it is appropriate to ensure that emergency response capabilities have evolved to meet those changes,” Birse said.
American Airlines resumed commercial service at the Palomar airport in February 2025 after a long absence. Since then, United Airlines has also returned, and American added more daily flights this year.
The airport is used primarily by private and corporate aircraft. It is within the Carlsbad Fire Department’s jurisdiction, although the facility is owned by San Diego County.
The single-runway facility opened in 1959 at what is now the northwest corner of El Camino Real and Palomar Airport Road. At the time, the surrounding area was mostly undeveloped. The city annexed the airport and the surrounding property in 1979.
Today the airport is surrounded by industrial and residential development.
In June, a local watchdog group called Citizens for a Friendly Airport filed its third in a series of lawsuits against the Board of Supervisors, challenging the board’s approval of commercial flights at the airport.
The group claims the flights violate the California Environmental Quality Act on issues such as noise and air pollution. The lawsuits also allege that the additional flights are an expansion of the county-owned airport, and that any expansion requires the approval of Carlsbad voters under a 1980 citizens initiative.
County officials have said the additional flights are not an expansion, in part because American, United and other airlines have had commercial flights out of Carlsbad for years in the past.
A county contract with the national company Pro-Tech Services provides five emergency personnel in shifts from 5:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. daily, said Donna Durckel, a communications officer for the county.
“McClellan-Palomar’s excellent safety record is the result of the specialized expertise of our Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) contractor as well as compliance with all FAA regulations,” Durckel said in an email Friday.
While the airport has reported no recent mishaps, there have been fatalities in years past.
Two people died in November 2015 when a helicopter attempting to land spun out of control and crashed in flames. Another helicopter rolled onto its side while landing in 2019, but no one was injured.
The airport saw several fatal plane crashes in the early 2000s.
A plane slammed into power lines just after takeoff in July 2007, killing the pilot and passenger in a fiery crash that narrowly missed two maintenance workers on the city’s new golf course below the airport.
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It was the third fatal crash involving the airport in 18 months and the 14th fatal crash in 41 years, according to federal records cited in a Union-Tribune news story at the time. Twenty-eight people died in those crashes.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires the airport to conduct a multi-agency emergency drill every three years.
“On Oct. 23, 2025, we held a very successful multijurisdictional safety exercise involving the County staff, ARRF, and first responders including Carlsbad, San Marcos and Encinitas Fire along with Carlsbad Police Department,” Durckel said.
“These exercises create a realistic training opportunity to support first responders and operational readiness of these agencies, while supporting FAA requirements,” she said. “This critical activity is also an opportunity for those participating organizations to interface under an incident command structure during an airport emergency setting.”
The airport’s response force is “really just a large fire truck that provides a special kind of foam for aircraft crashes,” Carlsbad Fire Chief Mike Calderwood said at a June 23 Carlsbad City Council meeting. “They have two of those there, a front line and a reserve.”
Anything other than a plane crash, such as a building fire, medical emergency or hazardous materials spill at the airport, is handled by the Carlsbad Fire Department, and a large incident would bring in mutual aid from other agencies in the region.
Shin, a retired fire captain with 20 years experience, said Carlsbad has long been on record with concerns about the private entity contracted to provide emergency services at the airport.
“They do not routinely participate in joint training, continuity planning, or day-to-day coordination with local and regional fire agencies,” Shin said in his letter to county supervisors.
“The airport’s emergency personnel are not staffed to provide command of a significant incident and would instead rely on responding municipal resources,” he said. “Yet those responding agencies have limited opportunities to train with airport personnel, cannot verify their qualifications, or operational capabilities, and cannot ensure they operate under the same standards and procedures that govern the regional fire service.”
Firefighters from Vista, San Marcos and Encinitas would be among the first called to assist Carlsbad under a standing mutual aid agreement.
“As firefighters serving a neighboring community in North County San Diego, we understand firsthand how the region’s fire and emergency medical agencies depend on one another during major incidents,” said Vista Fire Fighters Association President Michael E. Saldana Jr. in a July 13 letter to county supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer.
“Aircraft emergencies, in particular, are the kind of low-frequency, high-consequence events where mutual aid, shared training, and common operating procedures make the difference in outcome,” Saldana said.
“We share (Carlsbad’s) view that as passenger volumes, aircraft size, and commercial carrier activity at Palomar Airport grow, the emergency response framework supporting the airport should be evaluated to ensure it keeps pace,” he said.
Adding to some residents’ concerns is the Carlsbad airport’s placement on a federal list of more than 30 airports in California with “hot spots” for potential aircraft collisions on the ground.
McClellan-Palomar has two areas of concern on the list.
One is a place on a taxiway where it is difficult for air traffic controllers in the tower to see small planes when a large jet is parked in the way.
The other is a spot where pilots have been known to turn onto the wrong taxiway when leaving the runway, although there is no record of collisions there as a result of wrong turns.
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