Is the Federal Aviation Administration compromising safety and ignoring
an agreement to reduce noise pollution in order to maximize efficiency
at JFK airport?
Those were the charges residents made at the Oct.
23 meeting of the Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement
Committee, held this time in East Williston. Unlike February’s meeting
in Garden City, FAA officials showed up this time but
what they had to say brought little comfort to residents rattled by the
high volume of noisy planes flying over their homes.
The focus
once again was on Runway 22L, which TVASNAC says is getting more than
its fair share of traffic. It got 44 percent of all arrivals in August
for instance, according to Ray Gaudio, East Williston’s TVASNAC rep.
Mary-Grace
Tomecki, Floral Park's representative, said the Instrument Landing
System (ILS) approach for Runway 22L was used for 47 hours straight
between Aug. 10 and Aug. 11, 42 hours between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5, and
with the exception of a 30-minute break, for 52 hours straight between
Oct. 13 and Oct. 15. Arrivals using this approach fly over homes in
Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Elmont and East Hills.
"When we
speak about equitable distribution of air traffic, we are not just
talking about runway usage but also varying the routes as well to give
communities some reprieve," Tomecki told FAA officials.
Claude
Viera, FAA operations manager of JFK Tower, said fog may have required
them to use the ILS approach. However, without specific information
about the weather conditions, runway availability and configurations of
surrounding airports on those dates, officials could not comment.
"They are cramming them in for profits! Let's speak the truth!" one unidentified man shouted.
He
was not alone in alleging that “operational efficiency” was being put
before safety and noise abatement. One resident played a recording of a
recent conversation between a pilot and an air traffic controller at
JFK. In the clip, the pilot asks to land on Runway 31R, where the wind
conditions were more favorable, but was told he had to land on 22L,
where there was a cross-wind he would have preferred to avoid.
FAA
officials emphatically denied that safety was being compromised, but
Robert Jaffe, FAA aviation safety inspector for the eastern region, did
concede that Runway 22L was favored by air traffic controllers.
“Yes, the use of 22L is high,” he admitted. “It's one of the go-to runways for us … for efficiency."
When
asked what could be done to bring relief to residents living under
approaches that are getting bombarded, Jeffrey Clarke, senior manager of
the FAA’s eastern region, stated, "I don't know."
"If we move
it from here, we will impact someone else," he said. “I really, really
wish I had a magic answer for you … I'd like to sit in my backyard and
not hear the planes ... If I had a plan I'd have put it in place
already."
Clarke said the problem is the air space in New York is complex and limited since it is shared by three major airports.
“We
have not thrown our arms up in defeat though,” Clarke assured
residents. “We keep looking for ways to tweak.” For instance, he’s asked
TRACON’s new manager to look at bringing some relief to residents on
weekends similar to how they have been distributing the noise on the
overnight shift.
But when asked by New Hyde Park TVASNAC rep Kurt
Langjahr if the JFK “Tower Letter,” a signed agreement that states
runways be rotated every eight hours to distribute noise, was still in
effect, Clarke said, “No.”
“That letter is outdated,” he stated. “We've taken steps to move [it] out.”
Story: http://gardencity.patch.com/groups/tvasnac/p/frustrated-residents-fire-back-at-faa-officials
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