FAA, Massport hear residents tell of ill effects of plane noise

Their voices sharp with frustration, residents and politicians from across Boston took the Federal Aviation Administration to task over airplane noise at a public forum in Milton last Thursday.

With hundreds gathered in the town’s high school auditorium for a meeting that ran nearly two hours over its planned two-hour slot, speakers shared stories of what they described as infuriating and possibly hazardous living conditions under the flight paths of approaching and departing planes.

The FAA implemented a NextGen satellite-based navigation system called RNAV in 2012. According to the FAA, the system has increased safety and efficiency through precise plane routing. For their part, residents living under the routes say the new system has burdened their neighborhoods unequally, subjecting them to unending processions of jets overhead.

“It’s like being in a warzone,” said Pamela Wolfe of Hull. Residents described infants unable to sleep, families who can’t hold conversations in their homes, asthma and cancer risks, and the constant noise from dozens of planes flying overhead every hour.

Elected officials said they have been fielding complaints from their constituents since the RNAV procedures went into effect.

“We all noticed the huge uptick in calls and complaints, from teachers who are trying to teach class, to families that are just trying to enjoy their backyards, community activists worrying about the health of their communities,” said Congressman Stephen Lynch.

According to the Massport complaint log, there was a corresponding spike in calls to the agency with the introduction of the new system.
From January through November 2012, which included the first two months of the system’s implementation, Massport registered 2,175 complaints. In that same time frame this year it logged 15,688 complaints. Complaints from the towns of Milton and Hull kept pace with the increase at Masspprt: 94 and 14, respectively, in 2012; 4,123 and 1,035, respectively, in 2015.

Although Dorchester reported a lower number of complaints, its number still rose from 4 in 2012 to 99 in 2015.

US Rep. Michael Capuano said he lives directly under one of the flight paths. “I understand that in a city there are things you have to put up with… I accept that as part of life,” he said. And while Logan is a shared benefit, he added, “with every benefit there is also some pain, in this case pollution and noise. That pain can and should be shared fairly amongst all of us.”

Lynch organized and moderated the forum, which was attended by FAA officials, including area regional executive manager Todd Freidenburg, and by Alan Hale, and Flavio Leo of Massport.

“We on the state level are essentially powerless with respect to the FAA and airplane traffic,” said state Sen. Brian Joyce, from Milton. “I’ve been serving for about 19 years; this is the single most frustrating issue that I have ever faced,” he said.

Jeanne DuBois, the former head of Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC) also weighed in, saying that simply pushing the bulk of air traffic to their neighborhoods was not the answer.

A longtime community organizer from Roslindale, DuBois said she is woken up at 5:15 each morning by the planes and the experience is having a negative effect on her health. The communities need to coordinate their discussions on this issue, she said. “We’ll decide what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, and you guys are going to have to report back, because this is not acceptable,” she added.

Hale, the Logan air traffic manager, told the gathering that wind and weather are the primary determinants in what runway patterns are selected. The FAA’s Friedberg said that his agency has worked extensively with around 30 communities to assess and reduce noise. “Our goal in being here is to better understand your concerns,” he said.

That aviation officials were present was a positive step, Lynch said, but he pointed out that it was only after he threatened to cut $25 million from the FAA’s budget that officials agreed to conduct a community forum.

Lynch added that he was hopeful advancements could be made in the near future with flight route adjustments and increasing the height of incoming planes. “We’ve got some indication of progress,” he said.


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