Noise News
Below are links to stories about noise in relation to airports and aviation.
Dr Phillip Lee, MP for Bracknell, says Heathrow and NATS claims on flight paths “outrageous and unacceptable”
The MP for Bracknell, Dr Phillip Lee called staff from NATS and the airport to a meeting at the House of Commons on Wednesday 18th March, to answer questions about flight path changes affecting his constituency. He asked Jane Johnston, head of corporate affairs at NATS, and Heathrow senior staff to explain the situation of increased aircraft noise, and Heathrow's claim that they did not know there had been a change. Since the start of the "procedural change" to flights on the Compton route, there has been a huge degree of protest by affected residents, with thousands of complaints made. Heathrow repeatedly told people who complained about noise that "trials" ended on 12th November. Only now, four months later, has it emerged that these procedural changes continued, and NATS has no intention of reverting to the previous system, before June 2014. Dr Lee was told that NATS "didn’t make the connection" between the changes, and the increased complaints. The staff told Dr Lee they were simply following procedure. Dr Lee said: “This is a wholly outrageous and unacceptable situation. Given all the publicity that surrounded the additional noise caused by the flight path trials, I find it completely unbelievable that these changes in the procedures were simply overlooked by NATS as a possible cause for increased activity over residents’ homes."
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Windsor MP, Adam Afriye, says on NATS/flightpath fiasco, Heathrow has either been wilfully misleading or incompetent
Following sustained pressure from Adam Afriyie, MP for Windsor, Heathrow finally admitted changes to flight paths that have inflicted more flights and greater noise on residents in Ascot, Binfield, Bracknell Forest, Cheapside, Sunninghill, Warfield and other nearby areas. John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow, wrote in a letter to Mr Afriyie: “I recognise that as an airport community we have let you down in this instance. We need to do better to be a good neighbour and I would like to unequivocally apologise to you and your constituents.” Commenting on the letter, Mr Afriyie said: “I am deeply concerned on behalf of the residents who have suffered from extra aircraft noise without so much as a warning...What beggars belief is Heathrow’s insulting accusation that residents were imagining the extra noise! ... Heathrow must take the blame for misleading residents and being dismissive of their concerns. And I now call on Heathrow and NATS to release all flightpath data on arrivals, which Heathrow is yet to disclose to me....Heathrow has either been wilfully misleading or rather incompetent. Heathrow and NATS have serious questions to answer and must be held to account in Parliament.
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Gatwick area MPs hope to have CAA assurance that aircraft noise misery from PR-NAV will soon be addressed
MPs Paul Beresford, Crispin Blunt and Sam Gyimah, representing the people being overflown by the new departure routes from Gatwick have had a meeting with Mark Swan, the Director for Safety and Airspace regulation for the CAA. They needed to discuss the CAA's implementation of PR-NAV use of flight paths and its impact on local residents. The CAA asked for the public to comment on the implementation (named PIR) and that ended on 5th January. People in south Reigate, Redhill and Holmwood have been badly affected by aircraft noise pollution, for the first time, as they are outside the NPR (Noise Preferential Route) which were adhered to in the past. The CAA has the authority to require Gatwick to alter these flight paths following their PIR review. Mark Swan told the MPs that "We will not allow the status quo to be sustained". The MPs want the routes to be returned as soon as possible to the pre-PRNAV pattern. Mr Swan also stated that the CAA had sufficient authority to approve appropriate technical solutions that return paths towards the previous pattern. Gatwick Airport management have avoided attending meetings with angry and upset local residents, and have been slow to acknowledge there was a serious problems caused by flight paths. The MPs said: "We will sustain the pressure to try and deliver a summer less blighted than last year."
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Heathrow says it did not know flight path changes were continuing – blames NATS for not telling them
Heathrow and NATS had flight path trials during summer 2014, which ended on 12th November, due to intense opposition. See details. But complaints have continued and people have been adamant that the trials have not ended. Heathrow has given assurance after assurance that the trials have ceased, implying people are imagining the noise - or have become over-sensitive to it. Now Heathrow and NATS have had to apologise. Heathrow says it did not know the trial affecting the "Compton" route to the south west and west of Heathrow had not ended, as NATS had not informed them. As NATS and Heathrow work closely together, that is very hard to believe. Even if it could be credible, it reveals a markedly dismissive attitude to the thousands of upset residents, who have complained week after week. The airport had made no apparent effort to establish the facts, for many months. The areas particularly affected by this change are Virginia Water, Ascot, Binfield and some parts of Bracknell, which are experiencing a concentrated flight path. John Holland-Kaye said: "Because of the assurances we received [from NATS], we in turn told residents in good faith that no changes had occurred. That is unacceptable and I unequivocally apologise to local residents." However, NATS say they changed the route to improve the safe and efficient management of traffic departing from Heathrow and they are not planning to revert to previous procedures.
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Open email to the aviation industry & Government – from people suffering from aircraft noise
Someone living near Heathrow, now experiencing significantly worse noise from more concentrated flight paths, has written an open email to complain about the noise, and the repeated assurances that "nothing has changed." Thousands living under Heathrow take off routes believe things have indeed changed. The writer says: "I am gravely concerned at the level of anger which is rising in the blogs, tweets, Facebook and other social media as I am seeing increasing desperation within these groups. People are genuinely suffering noise disturbance, sleep disruption, disruption to concentration, interference with normal activities - and a high degree of stress and depression..... If this matter doesn't get resolved soon ... I can see even the most moderate and respectable members of the community losing the plot and undertaking actions that are out of character with their positions in society....[I] don't know what to do to resolve the disparity between the lies we are being told and the truth, to calm people down..... And am utterly dismayed by the apparent lack of concern or expedited action by senior politicians and councillors...The people or persons responsible for this noise onslaught need to bow their heads in shame at the mental and physical stress that they are causing."
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Gatwick’s Tom Denton says the controversial new flight navigation system is here to stay at Gatwick
Tom Denton, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Gatwick, has admitted that the airport would not rush to making changes to the use of PRNAV despite public opposition. He said: "There was an acceptance that SHOULD there be detrimental impact we would seek to revert to previous methods." However, there have been perceived detrimental impacts, and Gatwick does not intend to revert. Residents in many areas - to the north and north west of the airport in particular - have been complaining about the use of more concentrated flight paths, which is what PRNAV (also called PBN - Performance Based Navigation) creates. This has meant that more planes fly in these new narrow corridors - though fewer planes fly in some other areas. The Chairman of GATCOM (Gatwick Consultative Committee) wrote to Stewart Wingate.to ask Gatwick to honour a previous agreement to stop using PRNAV. Gatwick is one of the first UK airports to introduce the system, because Mr Denton said the quieter airspace around Gatwick meant PRNAV was easier to implement there. Tom Denton said the matter would be assessed "on a factual basis" and not emotional responses.
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To conceal the real number of aircraft noise complaints, Gatwick now just records one per person per day
Gatwick Airport's figures on noise complaints are no longer of much use, as they do not publicly report the full numbers. The airport changed the system to only record one complaint per person per day, no matter how many complaints about separate flights they may make. Gatwick says they have introduced this system because people can use phone Apps to make multiple complaints. Gatwick is being urged to record separately the number of people making complaints; the number of total complaints when only one-a-day is counted; and the total number of complaints (including number of planes). At the recent noise seminar held by Gatwick airport on 4th March, Tom Denton (Gatwick's Head of Corporate Responsibility) said, when questioned about the decision by GAL to only record one complaint, per person, per day that this has been the case for the last "2 - 3 years". The wording on the GAL website was changed, to show one complaint only per day, in August 2014. Tom Denton says - incorrectly - that this is the practice at other airports like Heathrow. Heathrow records "enquiries" (number of planes complained about), and "contacts" (number of complaint contacts/forms submitted), and "caller" (number of people). Every complaint, unless there are many on one form/email, is counted by Heathrow, even if several per day. But not by Gatwick - meaning complaint figures are not comparable. Gatwick's are now artificially low.
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In USA the FAA’s new air traffic control system NextGen is causing major noise pollution
The American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s new air traffic control system NextGen is causing considerable upset in parts of the USA, in the same way that precision navigation that is being promoted by the CAA is in the UK. The overhaul of airspace and flight paths in the USA is intended to save airlines fuel and time. But the new routes are causing misery to the people who now find themselves, unexpectedly and with no warning, under them. One resident, in Phoenix, said: "If you can imagine yourself at an air show, that's what it would sound like." Planes sometimes every 30 seconds for hours at a time. "Am I angry? Absolutely. I'm furious." In Phoenix planes now fly low over heavily populated neighbourhoods. The Mayor said the FAA did not hold a single public hearing notifying neighbours of the change, nor did the agency ever meet with him. The Mayor commented: "I think that the choice that was made to have such a disproportionate impact over such a small number of people is really fundamentally unfair and unacceptable." A 2012 Congressional FAA authorization bill fast-tracked the roll out of NextGen by exempting it from normal environmental impact reviews and public hearings. NextGen is also causing problems for people at JFK and LaGuardia airports.
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Passionate letter from a distressed victim of Gatwick’s concentrated flight path noise
Dear Mr Wingate. On weekdays my alarm is normally set for 06:40 am. At 05:52 today one of your metal gods tore through the sky above my house and woke my entire family. This happens on a daily basis now and more often than not earlier than this. One child in tears, a wife in despair and I, with an ever growing sense of rage and contempt towards your airport. I also understand that the narrow and concentrated flight path which you began in 2013 may have wiped £XX,000 off the value of my house, for which I paid a hefty premium to live in a quiet Tudor village. If you do not understand or appreciate the horror your concentrated narrow flight path has created, it is time someone made you wake up to it. My family, my neighbours and I have had enough, Mr Wingate. You should act on this email and the thousands of other similar letter you have received, and revert to multiple broad flight paths arriving at Gatwick. This needs to be done sooner rather than later..... The actions of a private company (Gatwick Airport) should not be bringing about emotional and financial ruin for thousands of people. And this is precisely what is happening. Imagine if Jaguar Land Rover built a testing track next to their factory without any kind of permission which generated this amount of noise and ran it from before 6am to 12pm incessantly, every day. Would that be permitted to carry on?
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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.