Friday, September 16, 2016

Residents complain about low-flying planes and noise



Officials in La Grange Park and Western Springs are assuring residents that recent complaints of low-flying airplanes was only a temporary problem.

Julia Cedillo, village manager in La Grange Park, said the village received 17 complaints from residents about low-flying planes and loud noise from them during the weekend of Sept. 10 and 11.

Ingrid Velkme, assistant village manager in Western Springs, said her community also had received several complaints and "it was all over social media."

Cedillo contacted the Chicago Department of Aviation and learned that runway maintenance occurring at Midway Airport required a temporary change to air traffic patterns which impacted the villages.

"Planes were arriving from the northwest. This is usually the direction in which planes takeoff. The maintenance is now complete and air traffic patterns have returned to normal," Cedillo said in a notice on the village's website.

She said the aviation department also advised her "that shifts in wind patterns and construction/maintenance on certain Midway runways can contribute to the use of different runway configurations that are more impactful to our area."

She said the runway configurations are only used about 10 percent of the time and therefore were likely more noticeable to residents.

Cedillo said there have been no permanent changes to flight patterns.

"In the case of this weekend, one runway was under maintenance and, due to the existing wind conditions, Midway utilized the flight path which impacts our community," she said.

Officials from the Chicago Aviation Department did not return calls for comment from The Doings.

Source:  http://www.chicagotribune.com

No comments:

Post a Comment