Noise News
Below are links to stories about noise in relation to airports and aviation.
Birmingham Airport ‘ignored’ views of residents, say campaigners
Birmingham Airport has been accused of ‘totally ignoring’ the views of local residents over proposed flightpath changes to pave the way for the £65 million runway extension. The long-running Battle of Balsall Common looks set for further skirmishes, There is a Balsall Common Airport Action Group, and their campaigners have voiced their dismay at the airport’s preferred option for aircraft taking off to the south. The airport says this route avoids the most populated areas, Barston, Hampton-in-Arden and Balsall Common and is positioned further away from Catherine-de-Barnes and Knowle. The Action Group say the airport has ignored their comments in the consultation, and that the new flightpaths will see planes flying over their area at between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, increasing noise nuisance and pollution. The airport's public affairs director said “We believe the best option has been put forward that impacts the fewest number of people in areas closest to the airport.”
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Low flying Boeing 737 taking off full of fuel for Jeddah terrifies household in Southend
A family near Southend airport were left terrified after a plane loaded with enough aviation fuel to fly to the Middle East took off from the airport and narrowly missed roof tops. The white Boeing 737 jet took off for Jeddah at 3.20pm on Thursday 8th, and passed very close to two homes in Prince Avenue, Westcliff. Rresidents were very alarmed, and one reported that the plane appeared to be at an altitude of only some 250 feet, rather than the usual 450 feet. The plane had been at the airport for maintenance and was not carrying passengers. An elderly lady with heart problems was left very scared and alarmed, and continues to be anxious whenever planes come overhead (which easyJet planes do many times every day now). The airport said: “There were no safety concerns raised by air traffic regarding this flight and its routing complied with the airport's noise requirements."
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Charity working to enhance outdoor learning and play for children urges responses to Airports Commission noise consultation
An organisation called "Learning through Landscapes", which works to help children benefit from good, stimulating outdoor learning and play in their education, has raised concerns about aircraft noise along flight paths. The Airports Commission currently has a public consultation on noise, and in its discussion document it raises the issues of children, schooling and aircraft noise. Learning through Landscapes encourages all those with an interest or concern about aircraft noise and childrens' education - inside the classroom, or learning outdoors, to submit their views by the 6th September deadline. The discussion document states: "Over 20 studies, both epidemiological and experimental, have shown negative effects of noise on reading ability and memory development in children. Several links between chronic noise exposure and children's cognition have been suggested, including teacher and pupil frustration, learned helplessness, impaired attention, increased arousal, indiscriminate filtering out of noise during cognitive activities resulting in loss of attention, noise annoyance, and sleep disturbance. "
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Residents seek caste-iron guarantee that new planes will be quieter as City Airport seeks to expand
HACAN East, the organisation which represents residents under the London City and Heathrow flight paths, is concerned that that City Airport’s expansion plans, to be announced soon, will result in more noise across East and South-East London. The airport is proposing to undertake a lot of work on its runway and taxiways to allow bigger planes to use the airport. It is also proposing to expand the terminal, build a hotel and create more parking. HACAN East chair, John Stewart, said, “City Airport claims that the new planes will be quieter than the large aircraft currently using the airport. But residents need a caste-iron guarantee that the planes will actually be quieter. People need assurances after 25 years of broken promises by the airport. It opened by telling residents that the airport would only use ‘whispering’ jets.” London City’s expansion plans now go to Newham Council, the planning authority for the airport, for approval.
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Are planes going to get significantly less noisy? Not any time soon.
In a BBC article, their technology reporter looks at work being done to try and make aircraft engines less noisy. He describes the sound deadening liner casings of engines - but which increase the mass and the drag of the aircraft and that increases fuel burn. Another approach is making the engines bigger, as a bigger, slower engine and fans makes a lower and less offensive noise - but that is squeezing the room left for the liners, which paradoxically need to be thicker to cope with the lower sound levels. "We have reached the point of no return without redesigning the airframes" said to Prof Jeremy Astley, director of Southampton University's Institute for Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR). Unless they go back to open rotor engines. Airlines have some concern about the amount of noise their planes generate, because the noise level of an aircraft can be a major factor in securing commercially vital slots at major airports. "At the London airports noisier aircraft get fewer slots" according to Prof Astley. In reality now, without profound changes to engines and airframes, for the foreseeable future, only marginal reductions in noise will be obtained.
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3rd runway would kill historic opportunity to improve noise climate for Heathrow residents
HACAN - (the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) - has produced a short report that shows how, contrary to the claims made by Heathrow Airport on how quiet planes are getting, an increase in the number of aircraft using the airport will only result in more noise for those under flight paths. Any improvements that could be made by use of slightly less noisy planes will be negated by a 3rd runway due to the huge increase in the number of planes. A 3rd runway would allow over 700,000 flights each year, up from the current ceiling of 480,000. The way aircraft noise is measured, one Concorde followed by 3 hours and 58 minutes with no planes is said to be as disturbing as 4 hour’s worth of non-stop noise from Boeing 757s at a rate of one every 2 minutes. That is manifestly not the way people under flight paths experience the noise. It is expected that next week Heathrow will make its submission to the Airports Commission - and they are likely to say a 3rd runway would result in an overall reduction in noise for Londoners.
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Aviation Noise discussion paper launched by Airports Commission
The Airports Commission has published Aviation noise, the 5th and last of its series of discussion papers, for public comment. The Aviation noise paper explores current scientific understanding and existing policy on aviation and noise, and the issue of annoyance and how this develops over time. It contains chapters on: How does noise affect people? (including health, night noise, amenity, quality of life, productivity and learning effects); Measuring aircraft noise (including noise metrics); Quantifying noise effects (including monetising noise impacts); Mitigation (including operational restrictions, and compensation). Sir Howard Davies, the Chair of the Airports Commission, said understanding the impact of noise from aviation on communities around airports and under flight paths is central to the Airport Commission’s work - both for options to make best use of existing airport/runway capacity in the next 5 years, and any future recommendations to Government for new airport capacity. Deadline for comment is 6th September - it is not a technically difficult document, so possible for the public to respond to
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GACC warns of widespread blight being caused by runway proposals submitted to Airports Commission
Gatwick Airport are due to publish their plans for a new runway by the Airports Commission deadline of 19th July. GACC, the main environmental community group concerned with the airport, warn that the runway proposal will result in widespread blight in the area. Thousands of people will find tens of thousands of pounds is knocked off the value of their houses, which will be hard to sell except at a substantial loss. "Working men and women will find themselves unable to move to take up a new job; retired couples will find their hopes dashed of moving to a smaller house in another area. Anxiety will be caused to thousands of people and some may be driven to desperation." In the days of BAA there was a Property Market Support Bond, so the airport would buy houses at the pre-blight price. The airport now says that scheme is under review and nothing will be decided until the Airports Commission reports in 2015. GACC says this demonstrates a callous disregard for the local community. GACC has asked the Commission to insist that all airports which are due to put forward plans for new runways should introduce a scheme for dealing with blight.
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Belfast City Airport: Reality dawns earlier now for unhappy airport neighbours
Over 8,000 people in North Down, south and east Belfast suffer from levels of aircraft noise that are considered to cause "significant community annoyance" - over 57 decibels - according to a new report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Belfast City Airport has published a draft action plan which includes a proposal to begin operating a noise compensation scheme for local residents affected by loud noise – but only those affected by noise levels of over 63 decibels. Residents say aircraft noise has become worse since Aer Lingus launched 3 routes from the City Airport at the end of March. There is a 6.30am take off to Faro, 7 days a week and on weekdays, there are then 5 BA departures beginning at 6.35am, and all before 7am. The planes have been getting bigger over the last ten years. A resident asked: "Surely they should stick the big jets at the International Airport and keep the regional flights at the GBCA." Belfast City Airport Watch does not believe that an airport situated in a densely populated urban area is the right location for international flights due to the noise and health impact on local people.
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Noise respite trials on areas of Heathrow flight paths – results due in the autumn
Between November 2012 and March 2013, NATS conducted a trial (in association with BA and HACAN) of providing defined periods of noise respite to people living directly under the Heathrow flight paths. NATS says this is an example of using air traffic control to help reduce the burden of aircraft. The Heathrow noise respite trial explored routeing the 16 - 17 flights that arrive at Heathrow each morning between 4.30am and 6.00am. There were defined zones in the approach area above London and over Berkshire that were ‘active’ sequentially week by week. Pilots were directed by air traffic controllers to avoid flying through the zone that was active for that particular week. There were inner and outer quiet zones were established for each of the two runways which resulted in eight zones in total. Diagram below shows how the zones worked. The results, including community responses, will be available in the autumn and will indicate whether such noise respite would be beneficial in future.