Evidence from noise monitors installed at the beginning of the year show that noise from planes has had a measurable impact on residents’ lives after the Federal Aviation Administration changed flight paths at Phoenix International Sky Harbor Airport last September.
In January, 37 noise-monitoring stations were installed at different locations along the new flight paths to monitor the ambient noise in the community.
“What we really determined, which was really important to us, is that these flights are actually interfering with speech and are certainly above the background noise level,” Deputy Aviation Director Chad Makovsky said at the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting Wednesday.
He said the legal protest filed by City Manager Ed Zuercher for flight path changes is being amended to include the noise monitoring done by a group called the Performance-Based Navigation working group.
Makovsky said he met with the project manager for the FAA, who is waiting for the conclusion of the PBN working group before implementing any changes.
Dale Taylor, a pilot who is semi-retired and lives in the Grand Avenue corridor, said at the meeting that the flight path changes are taking a toll on the residents’ health.
“It’s really nice to know the city is watching out for the interest of our citizens,” he said. “There is one point that doesn’t seem to get much attention, that is getting attention in our area… people having problems with health in addition to the noise.”
Taylor said that neighbors are complaining of the presence of more gray dust on furniture and cars outside their residences in the Grand Avenue corridor since the implementation of the flight path changes.
Taylor said residents requested a noise monitoring station at 23rd Avenue and Thomas Road, but the closest one to that area was at 14th Avenue and Thomas Road, which is less affected by the noise than at 23rd Avenue.
Ian Gregor, public affairs manager for the FAA, said the flight paths were originally changed to modernize the airspace system by taking full advantage of emerging technologies and aircraft navigation technologies to improve safety and efficiency.
“The procedures we implemented in Phoenix last September make a safe system even safer by automatically keeping arrival routes and departure routes separated from one another,” he said.
He explained that airlines program the procedures into their flight computers, and planes fly the routes automatically. This decreases communications between controllers and pilots, reducing chances of miscommunications.
Gregor said reverting the flight paths back to the procedures that were in use before Sept. 18, 2014 is not a quick and simple process.
“Making changes is not as simple as turning one procedure off and turning another one on, and designing and developing possible adjustments is not a simple or quick process,” he said. “(The new arrival procedures are) interdependent with the new departure procedures. Making changes to one would have a domino effect, requiring changes to others.”
Gregor said adjustments to the new procedures must be designed, subjected to rigorous safety analysis, flight-checked and charted. Additionally, air traffic control and aircraft automation systems must be updated, and air traffic control personnel must be retrained on changes, should the flight paths change.
In a letter from city manager Ed Zuercher to the mayor and City Council members on March 19, Zuercher said he believed the FAA failed to conduct proper notification, consultation and analysis prior to changing the flight paths, and that the FAA has yet to produce any formal documentation that they formally notified any airport or city decision maker about the FAA’s decision to “dramatically impact the lives of our residents.”
Makovsky said the PBN working group includes the FAA, air traffic controllers union, airline representatives, air traffic organizations, and other technical experts, “to look at what’s possible in the world of advancing safety, efficiency, and capacity of utilizing the local airspace.”
“We continue to work with the FAA and the community to address the noise-impacted areas that happened with the flight path changes that occurred on Sept.18, 2014,” Makovsky said.
Makovsky said the PBN working group has conducted three meetings at various locations in the affected areas of Laveen and the Grand Avenue corridors to discuss the results of noise-monitoring evaluations in the community. They plan to hold another meeting in the future.
Julie Rodriguez, public information manager for the airport, said retired congressman Ed Pastor is representing the city legally in the PBN working group.
Rodriguez said Zuercher filed a legal protest, asking that the flight paths return to their previous routes, but the FAA said that was not possible.
Contact the reporter at Jessica.G.Morrison@asu.edu.
