Plane noise is killing us

From PIX11:

For years, the Federal Aviation Administration gave tennis fans first-class treatment.

During the U.S. Open, the FAA diverted planes from nearby LaGuardia Airport, away from Arthur Ashe Stadium during the tournament. But in 2012, the tennis climb, as the flight path is known, stuck.

The decision permanently sent airplanes over the densely populated areas of northern Queens during takeoff.

"It's pretty loud, sometimes you think it's just a few meters above your roof," said Daniel Vasquez, who lives in Bayside.

Vasquez said he's constantly woken up by the rumbling of planes flying overhead. Now, according to a new study out of Columbia University, it turns out that turbulence may be causing more damage than anyone realized.

"I think the most damaging and shocking is the fact that given the noise impact, the air pollution impact, the noise from the planes, you could lose one year off your life," Sen. Tony Avella said.

Avella represents the impacted neighborhoods and said the FAA committed a classic double fault when it made the switch permanent. Not only was there no environmental impact study, but he said, the FAA didn't even bother to let the community know about the switch.

Civic leader says historic districts should be protected from noise

From the Times Ledger:

The LaGuardia Airport committee meeting at the Adria Hotel in Bayside on Jan. 25 brought one civic leader’s report that the Federal Aviation Administration may have overlooked rules pertaining to historic districts when creating flight patterns over northeast Queens.

Maria Becce, retired vice president of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association and current member, said she had corresponded with officials in Washington about a 1966 law protecting historic places and Native American reservations from environmental impacts of airplane noise.

The Broadway-Flushing Historic District, established in 2006, protects the integrity of about 1,300 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places that have stood for more than a century. The neighborhood now sits below the NextGen flight pattern, enacted in 2012, particularly the TNNIS climb for commercial aircraft departing from LaGuardia.

According to a letter issued in November from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, part of the Office of Federal Agency Programs, to Katherine Andrus, the FAA’s federal preservation officer, stating the agency had issued a categorical exclusion, or CATEX, under the Historic Preservation Act which the FAA seemed to falsely believe gave it immunity from complying with Section 106, which calls for additional studies pertaining to historic districts, the letter stated.

Kim says RKO plan is a no-go

From the Queens Chronicle:

According to Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), the latest plan to develop the derelict RKO Keith’s Theatre in Flushing is extremely dangerous.

The lawmaker sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this week, saying the height of the tower planned by Xinyuan Real Estate would be a hazard, given the location’s proximity to LaGuardia Airport. The proposed building would be 210 feet above mean sea level, according to Kim.

“The FAA has concluded on several prior occasions ... that any height at this location exceeding 195 feet above mean sea level would result in a substantial adverse effect, and warrant a Determination of Hazard to Air Navigation,” the lawmaker said.

In the eight aeronautical obstruction evaluations made by the FAA for Xinyuan’s plan, the agency found that none were hazardous, Kim pointed out in the letter. He said that they “were still approved despite being for points that are 204 or 210 feet above mean sea level.”

Xinyuan did not return a request for comment about Kim’s letter prior to the Chronicle’s deadline. The FAA declined to comment.

“The proposed building in question will be directly in line with incoming flight paths. In December of 2004, a Boeing 757 mistook the hazard light on top of a building in the same neighborhood for the start of a runway,” Kim said. “If a 210 foot building is actually built at this location as a result of these eight obstruction evaluations, the lives of countless constituents in my district would be put at risk.”

At the end of the letter, the assemblyman urged the FAA to “re-evaluate” the obstruction evaluation studies conducted for the planned tower.

NYPD crackdown on drones

From CBS 2:

More than 600,000 drones were registered with the Federal Aviation Administration last year alone.

As they grow in popularity, so do the number of accidents involving some of the amateur aircraft.

To see how the NYPD is cracking down on rogue drones, CBS2’s Maurice Dubois took to the sky with the department’s aviation unit.

Although this report states that drones are illegal in NYC except at 5 city parks, in reality there are no local ordinances pertaining to drones. The FAA requires that drone operation happen at least 5 miles away from airports, which prohibits drone operation in most of Queens.

Whitestone asks FAA to reroute helicopters

From PIX11:

Neighbors in Queens are sounding an alarm after a helicopter with two people inside made a water landing off the south shore of Long Island on Wednesday.

"We Love Whitestone" is a group created a number of years ago. Members joined with some other neighborhoods and people in Astoria, Queens to bring attention to the air traffic above their homes.

Alfredo Centola is a founding member of the Whitestone group. He has shared videos with PIX11 of helicopters flying over their homes. They run a website where neighbors can file reports and they also say they have set up sensors that track aircraft.

They're asking the Federal Aviation Administration to review the official flight plan that brings choppers and sea-planes over northwestern Queens. The neighbors point out the same path requires aircraft to fly along the water farther south in certain parts of Long Island's North Shore.

More noise than ever over parts of Queens

From the Daily News:

Northeast Queens residents saw 47% more departing planes from LaGuardia Airport flying over their heads between 2002 and 2014, an average increase of 2,779 flights a year, according to flight data from a group called Queens Quiet Skies.

And in nearby Jackson Heights, residents there saw a 78% increase in departing planes zooming overhead since 2008, mostly on weekends, according to the group.

Queens Quiet Skies compiled the data from the Port Authority’s runway data for LaGuardia Airport.

“We all felt we were getting more airplane noise over this community,” said State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens). “Now the records show it.”

Brian Will of Queens Quiet Skies pinned the plane blame on the Federal Aviation Administration.

“They say this is because of wind and weather,” he said. “No, this is an operational change.”

That shift meant more than 93,000 departures over northeast Queens in 2014, compared to more than 57,000 in 2002.

Flushing plagued by excessive aircraft noise

From AM-NY:

Noise levels in the Flushing, Queens, neighborhood near LaGuardia Airport exceeded federal levels on one of every three days earlier this year, elected officials and community activists said Monday.

The maximum permissible Day/Night Noise Level — or DNL — of 65 decibels was exceeded on 32 out of the 92 days from March through May on a monitor on Franklin Avenue, state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) said at a news conference.

The Federal Aviation Administration measures on a scale that averages all community noise during a 24-hour period, with a tenfold penalty for noise occurring at night and early morning.

“With this data, we now see what we’ve always known: parts of Queens are subjected to higher levels of sound than others,” Stavisky said.

She said the current DNL standards date to the 1970s and are obsolete. She and others at the news conference said the FAA should reduce the maximum allowable DNL to 55, the standard at most airports overseas.

Koo asks FAA to divert flight paths

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) is calling on the Department of City Planning to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to consider reverting to LaGuardia Airport’s old flight paths if it cannot resolve the airplane noise issue.

Before 2012, flight paths were routed over Citi field, the tennis stadium and Flushing Meadows Corona Park but would be diverted over Flushing during the US Open. But in 2012, the FAA approved the Flushing flight path for general use.

In a response dated Dec. 2, to a draft document of the environmental impact statement for the proposed Flushing West waterfront development plan, Koo said low- flying planes and the noise have caused health concerns for residents in his district. He noted that the proposed development area would be directly under LGA’s current flight pattern.

Koo, who lives in downtown Flushing, said the FAA has not conducted a comprehensive review of the flight paths approved in 2012 and said he keeps his patio door closed because of the noise.

Meng wants the EPA to take over plane noise issue

From DNA Info:

A lawmaker wants a federal environmental agency to take over efforts to fight airplane noise because the current overseer is "doing virtually nothing" to deal with it.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng first introduced legislation in July that calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to take over work being done to mitigate noise in neighborhoods close to airports.

She's been vocal about the EPA stepping up its monitoring of noise for months, but now wants it to take over the whole process, currently handled by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"The FAA has failed the residents of Queens," she said, adding that the EPA is "better suited to handle the problem."

Her bill, the Quiet Communities Act of 2015, would bring back the EPA's Office of Noise Abatement and Control — which monitored noise issues until President Ronald Reagan defunded it in 1981, Meng said.

Airplane noise in Queens isn't new, the congresswoman pointed out.

But it's gotten worse since 2012, when the FAA implemented new flight paths.

Regulations on drones and helicopters proposed

NYC Council/William Alatriste

From Gotham Gazette:

Pointing to insufficient efforts on the part of the Federal Aviation Administration, New York City Council members are taking regulation of the city’s skies into their own hands.

In asserting their authority with respect to helicopters and drones on a turf traditionally maintained by the federal government, council members may find themselves in ambiguous legal territory. But they tell Gotham Gazette that they are acting in the interest of public safety and in part to push other levels of government to act.

Council Members Carlos Menchaca, Helen Rosenthal, and Margaret Chin introduced a legislative package of two bills last month that would prohibit the operation of sightseeing helicopters, citing concerns about noise pollution. The council members are supported by “Stop the Chop NYNJ,” a group of community members who complain the noise from sightseeing helicopters are diminishing quality of life.

“What we’ve tried to do is approach this issue from the perspective of the FAA, from the federal body that’s required to regulate this industry. And we’ve tried so hard to regulate this industry to some avail, but not totally dealing with the problems,” Rosenthal said a press conference in July. “What we’ve done at the City Council is identify a different way to deal with the problem, and that is through the issue of noise. And in fact what the city can do is to ban tourist helicopters...they are responsible for this incessant noise.”

The City Council does not have the authority to regulate airspace over the city in terms of flight patterns— that’s under the purview of the FAA. But the council does have some regulatory power, as Rosenthal referenced.

City Council members have introduced two bills looking to curb the use of drones. One, introduced by Council Member Dan Garodnick would ban drones from the city’s airspace with the exception of NYPD drones that had obtained a warrant. In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Garodnick acknowledged that his bill starts from the “strictest possible place.”

Garodnick said that he believes there is reasonable place and time for drone enthusiasts to operate their unmanned aerial systems, but doesn’t want to “open the floodgates” before tools to enforce regulations exist.

The second bill, introduced by Council Member Paul Vallone, would seek to impose a series of regulations on drone usage.

Vallone’s bill would prohibit using UAVs for surveillance purposes, at night or operating them within five miles of any airport and within a quarter mile of schools, houses of worship, hospitals and “open-air assemblies.” Importantly, it also would require users to operate their drones within their line of sight, a requirement also suggested by the FAA.

Attack of the drones!

From WPIX:

More concerns at JFK Airport after a series of midair drone sightings, making three over the weekend.

Two separate flight over JFK spotted drones flying too close for comfort on Friday, prompting warning’s from the Department of Homeland Security that would be terrorists could use drones to attack the public. Another was spotted Sunday near the Queens hub.

The concern among security officials is the possibility that recreational drones could dangerous side of the coin is the threat to commercial jetliners.

Senator Charles Schumer over the weekend called for tough FAA rules on drones, as well as geofencing software that could prohibit a done to fly higher than 500 feet, and keep it two miles away from any airport or sensitive area.

Both of those flights landed safely without having to take evasive action on Friday, and the drone sightings are being investigated by both the Port Authority and the FAA.

Bird strikes up despite goose slaughter

From CBS New York:

Bird strikes affecting flights are on the rise in the Tri-State area.

As WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall reported, a new report suggests the problem keeps getting worse.

There were 175 bird strikes last year at LaGuardia Airport — the most since the FAA started tracking the incidents in 1990.

So the millions of dollars that taxpayers have spent to kill birds in NYC parks that the government deemed a threat to aircraft were actually thrown down the toilet? When is that waste of a program going to end as it has just been proven to be ineffective and unnecessary?

Southeast Queens residents fight back against JFK

From AM-NY:

A coalition of civic groups in Queens seeking to stop a project to upgrade and modify a Kennedy Airport runway has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Manhattan to order the airport operator to conduct a full environmental impact study.

The Eastern Queens Alliance, representing residents of southeast Queens, said the Port Authority's proposal to widen Runway 4L/22R and construct 728 feet of new pavement on the north end would put departing and arriving airplanes closer to homes, schools, churches and businesses.

Jets taking off and landing nearer to where children study and people live, work and worship would undoubtedly bring more noise and air pollution to neighborhoods that are already inundated with them, said the coalition's chairwoman, Barbara E. Brown of Brookville, Queens.

"The noise pollution is already bad, and to tell me a little more noise is not going to impact me is ludicrous," Brown said Tuesday in an interview.

The Port Authority declined to comment Tuesday, but in its reply to the lawsuit filed in September, the agency said its plan to extend Runway 4L/22R to 12,079 feet from its current 11,351 feet and widen it to 200 feet from 150 feet is necessary to meet design standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wider runway would accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380, a double-decker widebody jet that is currently the world's largest passenger airliner.

The FAA requires runways to have a buffer zone, referred to as runway safety area, to lessen the risk of damage to property and injury to passengers in the event an aircraft overruns, undershoots, or is forced to leave the runway. The Port Authority has until Dec. 31, 2015, to bring Runway 4L/22R into compliance.

Plane noise may be mitigated for many

From The Forum:

More residents living near Kennedy and LaGuardia airports could be eligible for federal grants to pay for insulating houses from aircraft noise, if the Federal Aviation Administration adopts new standards.

Recent changes to FAA flight procedures require that aircrafts fly lower along more precise paths. Therefore, while actual noise generated by aircrafts has decreased, and the number of people subject to noise has decreased somewhat, lower altitudes and “focused” noise tends to make the situation much worse for those under the newer flight paths.

A proposal before Congress would lower the acceptable DNL value level from 65db(a) to 55db(a). DNL (Day-Night average sound Level) statistics factor in data collected during a 24-hour period, with nighttime hours being weighted and additional 10 dB in consideration of a sensitivity to noise during the nightime hours. This data is then generally averaged over a year-long period.

In response to growing concerns, Governor Cuomo last year directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct what is commonly known as a Part 150 study, in order to define what steps might be taken in order to mitigate the problem. Created by the FAA in 1984, a Part 150 airport noise compatibility study is a set of regulations with two components: noise contour (exposure) maps demonstrating noise levels at airports and in nearby communities; and a noise compatibility program designed to provide solutions to the problem.

The Port Authority announced late last month that the contract for the Part 150 study on Kennedy and LaGuardia airports was awarded to consulting firm Environmental Science Associates. The project, expected to cost approximately $8 million combined for both Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, is to be funded mostly through flight fees and will run from October 2014 to August 2017.

In addition, the Port Authority has already implemented a “webtrak” portion of its website to allow residents to track flight patterns and monitor decibel levels in their communities, increased staffing to handle noise complaints, and committed to doubling the number of sound monitors around the two airports.

College Point trash facility has yet to open

From the Queens Chronicle:

After five long years it appears that the North Shore Marine Transfer Station in College Point is finished, but when will it open?

There have been problems along the way. Some people opposed it because of its location near LaGuardia Airport. They feared birds would be attracted to the site and ultimately cause accidents with planes.

Eventually, the building’s three-story height was lowered by 12 feet and federal and Sanitation officials said the facility and its smells will be so confined that there will not be an issue with birds.

The garbage will be processed in an enclosed building that maintains air pressure to prevent escape of odors.

The $121 million North Shore MTS had also been opposed at one time by former Congressman Gary Ackerman, because of its proximity to LaGuardia. He believed it might be a hazard to airport traffic, since it is only 2,000 feet from one of the runways.

But the FAA assured him that safety requirements were being met.

Then there was trouble pile driving, which took longer than expected. The station is located at 120-15 31 Ave., the site of the original smaller transfer station, built in 1954, which was torn down.

But similar projects in other boroughs have taken an average of two to three years to complete. Sanitation officials expected the College Point project to take three years and be completed by 2013.

Gene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, said members had wanted to take a walk-through, but that he had received no updates from Department of Sanitation officials.

CB 7 District Manager Marilyn Bitterman said she had heard the facility would open in December or early next year, but had no definite information.

Vallone vs. drones

From the Observer:

Queens Councilman Paul Vallone said yesterday he is drafting legislation that will seek to regulate the number of illegal drones flying around New York City. The Queens district attorney’s office approached Mr. Vallone about clamping down on the unmanned aircraft, which Mr. Vallone said fly dangerously close NYPD helicopters, LaGuardia Airport and Citi Field.

“The first thing is to give the police department and fire department the ability to make a decision about drones without restriction. They should be allowed to take whatever measure necessary to regulate them,” Mr. Vallone told The Observer.

The goal of the legislation would be to empower authorities to better enforce Federal Aviation Authority Law regarding drones. The FAA bans drones for commercial use, though hobbyists are allowed to fly them in parks no higher than 400 feet. Mr. Vallone said city authorities currently have little guidance about enforcing these regulations.

Mr. Vallone also wants to introduce more local regulations to mirror federal law that would ensure the city is protected from any potential terrorist threats. The United States and other countries now use drones to carry out attacks on enemies.

Developers and politicians against airport safety

From the NY Post:

The government wants to dramatically reduce the allowable height of buildings near hundreds of airports — a proposal that is drawing fire from real estate developers and members of Congress who say it will reduce property values.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposal, supported by airports and airlines, is driven by encroaching development that limits safe flight paths for planes that might lose power in an engine during takeoff. Planes can fly with only one engine, but they have less power to climb quickly over obstacles.

Airlines have to plan for the possibility that a plane could lose the use of an engine during takeoff even though that doesn’t happen very often. As more buildings, cellphone towers, wind turbines and other tall structures go up near airports, there are fewer safe flight paths available. Current regulations effectively limit building heights based on the amount of clearance needed by planes with two operating engines.

The FAA’s proposal has created “a real estate and developer firestorm,” said Ken Quinn, a former FAA chief counsel who is representing several developers. “A single building can be worth $100 million and more. If you are talking about lopping off whole floors, you can ruin the economic proposition and you can destroy the viability of the building, so you are talking about easily a $1 billion in economic impact.”

Cellphone tower owners and operators are also concerned.

Airplane noise and runway plans announced

From the Forum:

Queens residents living around the borough’s two airports may not have to suffer through the same kind of noise they have in the past for much longer, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week directing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to launch a multifaceted approach to addressing the issue that has long plagued area denizens.

As part of the governor’s request, the Port Authority will also be stepping up the review of noise data with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The agency has said its overall goal is to address noise concerns while supporting growth at JFK International and LaGuardia airports, which annually generation billions of dollars in economic activity and wages and support hundreds of thousands of regional jobs.

“Airport noise is rightly an important concern for residents of Queens, the Bronx, and Nassau County, and that is why I am directing the Port Authority to open a full and thorough dialogue with the impacted communities while also pursuing a noise study to better address the issue,” Cuomo said in a statement. “We will listen to local residents and ensure their input is used to make both JFK and LaGuardia airports better neighbors.”

The initiative to mitigate noise includes the Port Authority commencing community roundtables with FAA officials and community representatives in April for both airports. The gatherings will also include elected officials and will be held on a regularly scheduled basis.

From the Times Ledger:

Washington has given the Port Authority the go-ahead on a plan to rehabilitate a runway at JFK Airport, but those in adjacent neighborhoods opposed to the construction said they intend to appeal the decision.

The Federal Aviation Administration told the Port Authority March 10 it found no significant environmental impact from the agency’s plan to widen and extend runway 4L/22R 728 feet closer toward Idlewild Park in order to build federally mandated safety zones at either end of the tarmac.

“Given your desire to implement this project in the very near future,” the FAA wrote, the Port Authority should make a public notice of the decision “as soon as possible.”

The PA, which is planning to begin construction next month and wrap up near the end of 2015, published a notice in a Queens weekly newspaper last week of the FAA’s decision and a link to the website where it will be available until mid-May.

Barbara Brown, chairwoman of the environmental-steward group Eastern Queens Alliance, has been skeptical of the proposal since its inception. In an area that has long been beleaguered by low-flying planes, she said, even a slight increase in airport noise has to be taken in context.

“They say their model shows it’s not a significant impact, but in a community already overburdened by noise, to say a little bit more is not going to impact you doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “We are not happy with the decision. We have 60 days from March 14 to file an appeal and we’re really going to be moving in that direction.”

Killing wildlife hasn't made flying safer

From NJ.com:

When a flock of Canada geese collided with US Airways flight 1549, forcing Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to ditch the plane in the Hudson River in 2009, the threat that wildlife poses to aviators exploded onto the national stage.

Since then, ridding New Jersey’s airport runways of animals has become daily business for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Since 2008, the agency has killed nearly 6,000 animals, mainly birds, that have congregated in areas it deemed to be a threat to aircraft safety at Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports.

The problem is, these efforts are having no significant impact. The birds, it seems, don’t know that they are supposed to be scared away.

An analysis of Port Authority and Federal Aviation Administration data by The Star-Ledger shows that though the agency has expanded its wildlife management program considerably since 2009, wildlife collisions with aircraft at New Jersey airports have not declined.

Though most wildlife strikes do not cause any issue, several planes arriving or departing from New Jersey airports typically do sustain damage each year.

An aircraft at one of the Port Authority’s New Jersey airports collides with an animal, typically a bird, about once every two days — a figure that has remained virtually unchanged every year since 2008, the year before the Flight 1549 crash.

During that time, however, the number of animals — from European starlings to foxes to the threatened American kestrel — killed by the Port Authority has skyrocketed. In Newark, for example, just 10 animals were killed by the agency in 2008, while 1,267 were killed two years later.

Will Crowley's airplane noise law really change anything?

From the Queens Courier:

The skies over Queens and the rest of the country may soon be quieter.

Congressmember Joe Crowley gathered with state and local elected officials, advocates and community members Friday to announce the introduction of the Silent Skies Act bill that will work to alleviate airplane noise pollution in neighborhoods surrounding LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports.

The new legislation will require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to implement regulations by the end of 2015 demanding commercial aircrafts to go from Stage 3 noise standards to Stage 4 noise standards, reducing the sound by 10 decibels.

“Airports can never be perfect neighbors, but we can take steps to make them better neighbors,” said Crowley. “While commercial aircraft can never be truly silent, we can make sure they are less disruptive to the families who live nearby and improve the quality of life in our communities, not just here in Queens but throughout the country.”

Advocates for the reduction of airplane noise say the loud engines disrupt sleep, distract students and drown out the noise of everyday life.

Although the FAA issued regulations that required all new commercial aircraft designs to meet these new noise standards, the new introduced legislation would also have the FAA phase out older and louder aircraft.

The Silent Skies Act will now require the FAA to bring in quieter engines at a rate of 25 percent of an airline’s planes every five years, with all commercial airlines meeting the new noise standards by 2035.

Here's more.