ABOVE: In 2019, the City of Scottsdale made this proposal (in purple) to the FAA to resolve the FAA's intrusive placement of departing flight paths directly over the City and its communities. It would take flights out to the east over unpopulated terrain where noise would not be an issue. The FAA rejected the proposal.
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JUNE 2024
In this issue:
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Congress finally passes the FAA Re-Authorization Act
The Senate passed the FAA Re-Authorization Act of 2024 (previously passed by the House) on May 15, 2024. The President signed it into law on May 16, 2024. It provides funding and authorization for the FAA through September, 2028.
SCANA's last update discussed the recommendations that it and many other aviation impacted organizations submitted to Congressional reps requesting support to have actionable noise mitigations included in the FAA Re-Authorization legislation. While there was new language included in a number of sections, most all of the new language did not directly force the FAA to make actual changes. Some new provisions might possibly create more inclusion by impacted communities but that remains to be seen.
Section 787 is an example of new language that was added that seemingly directs the FAA to take action on community noise issues. But then gives the FAA an out to do nothing. This section of the Act states: "In implementing or revising a flight procedure, the Administrator shall seek to take the following actions.......... (1) implement flight procedures that can mitigate the impact of aircraft noise, based on a consensus community recommendation. (2) Work with airport sponsors and potentially impacted neighboring communities in establishing or modifying aircraft arrival and departure routes." This sounds great until you read the caveat: ".. (to the extent that such actions do not negatively affect aviation safety or efficiency)". And while that caveat in itself seems reasonable, who and how determines safety and efficiency? The FAA. And what has the FAA said since day one about the benefits of NextGen, which condensed new flight paths into narrow air freeways over the same communities: that it provided improved safety and efficiency! The new flight paths themselves did not improve safety, if anything they compromised it by putting all air traffic over heavily populated communities. The GPS satellite navigation system does improve navigational guidance, but that can be utilized on any flight path anywhere. Efficiency? Only the airlines benefited by saving a few gallons of fuel due to the shorter routes. While the fox is allowed in the hen house, its behavior is not going to change. At best, getting some new wording into the Act is better than none at all, and hopefully will form a basis to try to get some legislative teeth inserted in the future. Since changes are still left to FAA discretion, we realistically do not expect many, if any, meaningful noise mitigation actions stemming from this recent legislation. Regardless, the many community organizations across the Country will continue to press for mitigations and new legislation to mandate the FAA to mitigate the harm it has caused with it's NextGen flight path debacle.
Here are links to detailed analysis provided by the Aviation Impacted Communities Alliance, AICA, which SCANA thanks for all of the work, time and efforts it expends on keeping abreast of aviation noise issues and sharing its work products with organizations such as SCANA.
CLICK HERE to read the AICA opinion on the passed legislation
CLICK HERE to read the AICA's issue by issue analysis
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TEN YEARS OF HELL
In November of 2014 Scottsdale residents woke up to a new reality: commercial airliners out of Sky Harbor Airport were flying directly over their communities, one after another after another after another. Residents were used to the occasional airliner that passed overhead; they were infrequent and that infrequency was not an interruption or disturbance to the enjoyment of their homes and outdoor spaces. But what was this sudden, continual surge of overhead airliners all about? Unbeknownst to them, the City of Phoenix, the City of Scottsdale and all other governmental and community organizations, the FAA had changed the game. The FAA changed the game by keeping it a secret that it was moving the flight paths at Sky Harbor that for many years had been flown over the same broad areas. Areas where city zoning and development projects were keenly aware of the overhead impacts. Where everyone knew where the game was played. But that November, across the Country, the FAA paid no heed to historical, ingrained norms, and rolled out its NextGeneration (NextGen) navigation system and new flight paths.
The NextGen technology is not an issue, it is how that technology was implemented by the FAA to move flight paths. Radar navigation, that had been in use for decades, and is a safe and proven system, used a wider berth of paths for arriving and departing airliners. This resulted in air traffic being disbursed over wide, and less populated areas. While a number of people were exposed to an occasional airliner passing overhead, they were exposed to fewer airliner events. As a result, unless you were close to the airport, many communities did not object to the low volume, disbursed traffic. NextGen, however, doesn't use radar to navigate air traffic. It uses satellite GPS routing to guide arriving and departing air traffic. GPS is very precise and accurate. Rather than continuing to utilize the older flight paths that were like an alluvial fan, The FAA chose to use NextGen to direct each airliner on exactly the same precise route for each flight path. This resulted in communities below the new flight paths to experience all of the air traffic for a given flight path. No more occasional overhead flights; now it was every flight on that path, recurring as often as every two minutes.
The FAA's secret was now out of the bag. But that was the FAA's strategy. Plan new flight paths but don't tell the public because it knew the public would object and make it difficult to move the paths to the new locations the airlines wanted. Instead, keep the moves secret, implement them, and then feign surprise when the outcry came. It knew once it had the new paths operational that it would be near impossible for Cities and communities to force revisions. And indeed, cities and communities rose up and decried the noise impacts the new routes were causing. Congressional reps were contacted, letters, emails and phone calls inundated the FAA and airports. Demands were made. But the FAA, knowing it had no oversight, refused to acknowledge the impacts and rejected all pleadings to return flight paths to their original locations. The FAA lied, saying the flight paths were not new, but in Scottsdale, there were now three departing flight paths instead of two and they were now placed right down the middle of the city and populated city territory. The FAA justified the new flight paths saying they were: safer and more efficient. It also tried to argue that fewer people were exposed to noise. But it failed to acknowledge that even if true, fewer people being exposed to all the aviation noise was far worse than more people experiencing occasional noise. Proof: in 2013 the number of Scottsdale noise complaints registered at Sky Harbor was 7; in 2016 after NextGen, the number rose to almost 17,000.
As time went on and the FAA continued refusing to consider modifications to flight routes, the only option left was to take legal action, which the City of Phoenix did, culminating in August of 2017. The City won that lawsuit on the fact the FAA failed to inform proper Sky Harbor Airport management of the NextGen changes. The FAA was forced to revert nine flight paths that overflew Phoenix back to their original locations (only those nine were being litigated). The FAA was also instructed to hold public meetings to inform the public of the Court ordered changes, and to accept input on other community noise issues. In those meetings the FAA floated some ideas for changing routes over Scottsdale, and the City of Scottsdale presented the FAA with suggested route changes (see above). After the meetings were over and all the suggestions were documented and reports issued, the FAA announced it would consider changing: nothing.
With no other options available, the City of Scottsdale then decided to pursue legal action and filed suit against the FAA in March of 2020. The FAA asked for, and received seven extensions to delay the suit. Scottsdale and the FAA agreed to enter mediation discussions to see if solutions could be worked out in lieu of legal action. When the FAA refused to offer meaningful resolutions and was only stonewalling the process, Scottsdale pushed the lawsuit ahead. Then, on June 24, 2022 the Federal Court of Appeals dismissed Scottsdale's lawsuit, without judging its merits, because the City: “has not established that it has standing to bring its question”. In other words, a City apparently has no right to represent its citizens that have been harmed by another party's actions. This decision re-enforced the perception that the Courts are deferring to the FAA by finding ways to avoid addressing the merits of these cases by dismissing them on some questionable technicality.
So here we are, almost 10 years later with lots of time and effort expended to bring the FAA to task for its egregious, arbitrary and many will say, illegal actions. Now, the only option forward is to convince Congress to create definitive legislation to force the FAA to address and fix it's transgressions against our communities. That large effort was just undertaken as explained in the above article regarding the FAA Re-Authorization legislation. New legislative language added did not mandate the required actions that are needed. But the community organizations across the Country will not give up. And in time, we hope that bit by bit, the FAA will eventually be brought under control and its tradition of disregarding and trampling on the rights of our citizens on the ground will be stopped.
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PHOENIX SKY HARBOR AND FAA WORKING GROUP
The FAA formed a "Working Group" to discuss aviation issues around Sky Harbor Airport and the Metroplex area. The group first met in October of 2022 and then met last June, 2023. The City of Scottsdale was invited to join the group for the June meeting and is being represented by an employee at Scottsdale Airport. While the Sky Harbor website says that flight paths will be reviewed, the minutes from the June 2023 meeting did not reflect any meaningful discussion that involved the flight paths over Scottsdale. It also states that there will be public outreach workshops held in the summer of 2024. No information regarding those can be located anywhere. Also, as of this writing, there is no word when, or if, the next working group meeting will be held. While it is not known if any changes could come from these meetings, it is hoped that Scottsdale can get its concerns aired and on the table for the groups discussions. No surprise that the FAA has done nothing to further these meetings. Delay, foot dragging and exclusion is the FAA's history when it comes to involving the public in any discussions regarding airspace matters.
CLICK HERE to read the Sky Harbor website description of the working group meetings
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HAVE YOU GIVEN UP FILING COMPLAINTS?
After 10 years it is understandable if you have tired of filing noise complaints when there has been little progress in achieving changes. But be aware, this plays into the FAA's strategy. Over time it knows people will tire of the fight and eventually give up. Don't succumb to the FAA's strategy. While you don't need to file complaints every day, please file the occasional compliant so the FAA knows there are still citizens who care, With the FAA Working Group hopefully conducting meetings regarding Phoenix Sky Harbor airspace, it is still important that Sky Harbor log complaints regarding the flight paths over Scottsdale. If there are few complaints, the FAA can claim there are no issues. To demonstrate to the Working Group that residents are still fed up with the FAA's NextGen flight paths, we still need the number of complaints filed to reflect our resolve.
CLICK HERE SKY to go to the Sky Harbor compliant form to log a complaint. No log in is required and it only takes a minute! Try to file a frequent complaint. It matters!
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PLEASE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE EFFORTS TO RESTORE THE QUIET AND SAFE SKIES SCOTTSDALE ENJOYED BEFORE THEY WERE STOLEN BY THE FAA
WE DID NOT MOVE TO THE FAA, THE FAA MOVED TO US!
Thousands of homeowners in Scottsdale and across the Country purchased their homes before an airplane superhighway was "arbitrarily and capriciously" placed over their neighborhoods without their knowledge or input.
