Residents Seek Help To Reduce Airplane Noise

A group of approximately 20 Garden City residents, concerned with the increase in air traffic over their neighborhood, sought assistance from the Village’s Environmental Advisory Board at a meeting held on Wednesday evening.

Residents said that over the past 18 months, and especially since the summer, they have noticed a significant increase in the number of airplanes flying over their homes, at lower altitudes, as they descend to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Some evenings they claim planes will fly every 90 seconds along the same flight path from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., and then resume at 4:30 a.m.

Brian Ross, who lives on Stratford Avenue, said his entire family and his neighbors have been affected. He said the noise causes his children to wake up during the night. Even though the temperature has been in the 50s, he has resorted to turning his central air conditioning system on to provide background noise to help drown out the airplanes. Other residents complained of disrupted sleep, and some say they can’t enjoy their backyards during the day because the noise level is so intolerable.

Another Garden City resident, who asked that her name be withheld, is particularly troubled by the affect the noise has had on her four-year-old son with autism. He has found the noise so disturbing that he has pulled his eyelashes out and tries to hide under his bed. She said she herself is frightened by the noise, which she called “extremely loud and disturbing.”

The group claims the planes fly so low their homes rattle and they can smell jet fuel. “You can actually see the wheels on the planes,” said Marybeth Giarraputo, who has lived in the Village for 11 years. “There has always been some planes, but not to the same extent as now.”

“I literally feel like if I was standing on my roof sometimes I can hit them with a baseball,” said Ross.

Residents were told that a new air traffic grid implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration over the summer is responsible for an increase in air traffic over the Village. They are concerned with the news that planned construction at Kennedy Airport, slated to begin in March and projected to last more than two years, will cause the problem to continue or even worsen.

The EAB was sympathetic after hearing their stories. Trustee Lawrence Quinn, who serves as EAB chairman, asked Robert Mangan, director of the Village’s Dept. of Public Works, to request two weeks of flight information from the FAA and to research what neighboring communities are doing about the issue, including Mineola, New Hyde Park and Floral Park.

In 1996, the EAB, specifically concerned at the time with air safety and pollution, proved instrumental in securing an agreement with the FAA and the Port Authority of NY & NJ to formulate and sign the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON)/Kennedy Tower Letter of Agreement. In November 2000 a second “gentleman’s agreement” was signed. Mangan said the original agreement called for a staggered flight path.

However, a letter obtained by the Garden City News reveals that in February, 2002, the Village was called upon to write a letter to the FAA to complain that they were not adhering to the agreement. Robert H. Lewis, who was mayor of Garden City at the time, wrote that the Village had reported numerous instances of non-compliance, which he wrote, “has proven to us that the agreement is no deterrent to the low approaches and early hour sleep disruptions which we continue to experience.”

Garden City resident Bill Gaberlarage said according to FAA rules, planes cannot land before 6 a.m. He claims they are flying over his house as early as 4:30 a.m. Mangan said runways are supposed to be closed from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Trustee Quinn also plans to call Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy’s office to arrange a meeting, which a group member said she has been attempting to do for three weeks without success. A call by the Garden City News to the contact person at the Congresswoman’s office was not immediately returned.

Mayor Robert J. Rothschild had acknowledged the problem at last month’s Board of Trustees meeting and asked Trustee Quinn to help residents get a resolution. “It is definitely an issue that has gotten worse and needs to be addressed,” he told the Garden City News yesterday by phone.

Residents can visit www4.passur.com/jfk.html to view and identify offending aircraft. The identity, altitude, origin, aircraft type and glide path used for any flight within the past three months can be learned by visiting this Web site. [Note that you can reset the time and date at the top of the page to look back to identify offending aircraft. Click on any plane to learn its time, date, identification and attitude.]

It is important to include this precise information when calling the FAA at (888) 835-5322 or the Port Authority at (516) 747-1417 when lodging a complaint. You can also send an e-mail to the FAA at 9-Aea-Noise@FAA.gov.