Noise demonstration blasts 80 dB recorded plane noise outside home of Frankfurt airport CEO for 2 hours

As a protest against the level of aircraft noise that people living near Frankfurt airport are exposed to – especially since the opening of the 4th runway in October 2011 –  people have bombarded the home of the airport Chief Executive, Stefan Schulte, with noise.  Citizens in a convoy of about 40 cars parked outside his house, in a small town north of Frankfurt,. They set up loudspeakers and ghetto blasters in their cars, and rolled down the car windows in order to blast out noise, at about 80 decibels. That is loudest the police allowed them to use.  The noise went on for two hours, with two breaks. The protest was by people living in areas across Rhein-Main who are badly affected by noise from flight paths. The noise they used was of planes, recorded at Niederrad Sachsenhausen, which is an area about 3 km to the north east of the airport. After some time of the noise bombardment, the CEO’s automatic garage door opened, and he set off in his car for work at the airport. One of the protesters commented that they did not understand how Herr Schulte is able to say society must just endure such levels of noise. Asked if the protest had been successful, one protester commented that it had been if the media and more members of the public are aware of the issue.

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DEMO IN BAD HOMBURG – full blast of plane noise for Fraport Chief Schulte Fraport CEO Schulte

 By ANDREA HERZIG  ( fr.online.de)

 28.2.2015

With megaphones, ghetto blasters or loud cranked up music systems in the cars to make the noise for the protesters in Bad Homburg. Photo: Monika Müller
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Imperfect translation from the German below – apologies for any translating errors (blame a combination of Bing and Google translate…)
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Noise Noise: citizens’ initiatives have demonstrated noisily in Bad Homburg front of the house of Fraport CEO Schulte. The action lasted for two hours with two breaks.BAD HOMBURG –  (which is a little town about 15 km north of Frankfurt)

On Saturday morning, around 40 cars brought noise opponents from across the Rhine-Main area on to outside the town house of Fraport’s CEO Stefan Schulte on the outskirts of Bad Homburg.

The people in the parade of cars rolled the windows down and used megaphones and ghetto blasters to make noise, with the car window open. Many have simply turned up with their cars.From all speakers echoed the same sound: aircraft noise that was recorded from Niederrad Sachsenhausen in Mainz, Germany.

In front of the house of the Fraport boss there was a portable loudspeaker, the size of a moving box. Here the engines roar the loudest. 80 decibels was the loudest the police allowed the protesters to use. Aircraft noise opponent Erwin Stufler from Mainz measured the volume with an app on his smartphone, at 75-81 decibels, on the other side of the road.

He was wearing blue earmuffs. The roaring is continuous and ? deafening. A conversation is only possible if one speaks energetic against the din.

Reiner Franzmann of the Citizens’ Initiative, North Frankfurt Aircraft Noise, announced live in the ? flight time table and the routes: to Krakow, Fuerteventura, St. Petersburg. Stufler displayed ???? in another app. There are also planes flying in the skies above Bad Homburg fly this morning at around 10,000 feet high.

Stefan König from Offenbach has come with his young cousin to Bad Homburg. The teenager and the man in the 30s are photographed with bright yellow placards denouncing the airport – standing in front of Schulte’s doorstep. König has come up recently retrofilled his bedroom window with soundproof glazing. “I must, of course, pay for this myself,” he says, “otherwise I’m woken up every morning by 5 clock”.

On the wall behind König is an inflated plastic airplane, with “Pfuifly” written on it. Behind the entrance gate stirs nothing. Shortly before 8 am, the double garage rolls up and Fraport’s CEO – sitting in a BMW – drives out onto the road and drives off quickly. Noise enemy König does not understand how Schulte in newspaper interviews can say that society must just endure the level of noise.

A few meters further down the road waiting for a neighbor in a car in the luxury class to the parade passes by him. He wants to go to breakfast, “in order to have some peace”. He is sympathetic to the protesters. Lufthansa have economic problems and are putting pressure on Fraport.

Chirping birds

Suddenly it’s quiet, and a treat that the birds can be heard again. It is a noise break, says organizer Reiner Franzmann through megaphone. After five minutes, the roaring starts again, the flight noise coming out of the speakers. Many drivers have Ortsschilder parade of cardboard signshanging in the rear window: the names of affected places – Kelsterbach, Nieder-Olm, Mainz-Gustavsburg, Lerchesberg, Oberrad.

The neighbouring houses to that of Schulte with their classy chrome and glass facades only suffer noise of 50 decibels, and only Schulte’s house gets the full blast. Most of the posters on the cars have been already been seen on many demos here before. Salute the “noise break Clowns” Bouffier and Al Wazir with red noses. “Green traitor,” “Aircraft noise makes you sick” is set to another, and “we are not slaves to noise”.

After more than two hours and two noise breaks Franzmann ended the protest. For him, the event is a success if the media and many residents have become aware of the issue. A jogger shakes his head. He did not know the affected villages are suffering noise as loud as that.

Original article in German at 

http://www.fr-online.de/flughafen-frankfurt/demo-in-bad-homburg-volle-droehnung-fuer-fraport-chef-schulte,2641734,29999022.html

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Earlier:

Noise protesters block part of Frankfurt airport for about an hour

Opponents of the noise misery inflicted on them by Frankfurt airport’s 4th runway, there has been a fresh protest at the airport. There have been regular large protests at the airport on most Monday evenings, ever since the opening of the 4th runway on 21.10.2011. On Saturday there was a different sort of protest, when people started off in a similar protest to the Monday evenings, but they then blocked the road access to the departures area for around an hour. That caused considerable disruption to the airport, as departures had to be closed.  This is the first protest blocking a road.  Before the runway was opened, citizens were barely consulted about the flight paths. Only their local authorities were given any information, and all were assured there would be hardly any more noise. The reality was sharply different, and flight paths were changed to accommodate the new runway, meaning thousands  are affected by noise, not only on the direct approach path. One protester commented that as the airport aggravates them for 18 hours per day, they were entitled to aggravate the airport for one hour.

https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2014/11/noise-protesters-block-part-of-frankfurt-airport-for-about-an-hour/


Indignation in Frankfurt at the approval of the 3rd Terminal, for yet more flights and more noise

Frankfurt airport protesters continue their huge gatherings on most Monday evenings (they have a break in the summer, and do vigils instead). There have now been 108 Monday protests and 34 vigils, with around 1,000 at the protests and around 100 at the vigils. After the news that planning had been granted for a 3rd Frankfurt airport terminal, there were far more people than usual at the vigil, with around 500, mobilised by the news. It was “the first Monday after the Tuesday,” and people were deeply angry at the news, and that it had been broken in August, in the holiday period.  The terminal enables the airport to grow, with more flights and more passengers. That means more noise misery for the thousands who already find the over-flights unacceptable. Opponents want the right to sleep, which they say is a fundamental right that is destroyed by aircraft noise. It is unacceptable for people to be rudely woken from their sleep at 5am and that they can no longer sit in the garden when the weather is good is described as “a monstrosity”. “We do not want to live like this.”  Opponents hope the decision can be reversed, when there is a proper study of the surface transport infrastructure required for a new terminal.

https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2014/11/noise-protesters-block-part-of-frankfurt-airport-for-about-an-hour/

 

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