JANUARY 2020

__________________________________________________

THE FAA SAYS NO!

THE FAA POSTED A COMMUNITY UPDATE ON ITS WEBSITE ON JANUARY 10TH

The Community Update for Phoenix residents stated that the FAA:

•  will make no changes to any eastbound flight paths as a result of Step Two, ignoring the hundreds of complaints and comments that residents submitted,
•   rejected the proposed solutions that the City of Scottsdale and SCANA submitted,
•   did not address a proposal from Sky Harbor Airport to return the paths to historical locations,
•   is not pursuing the two "Concepts" it presented at the workshop meetings in April,
•   said a "new action" would be needed to address any airspace changes around   Phoenix (which it has not initiated),
•  considers the Courts settlement agreement requirements met and completed,
•  would continue dialogue with stakeholders, even though it has not conducted any true dialogue in the past
•  posted a summary of all the comments submitted and the FAA's response to them using canned and technical jargon to attempt to justify that everything it does is correct  and our communities are wrong.

IN SHORT, THE FAA CONTINUED IT'S LONG STANDING PROCESS OF CLAIMING IT IS NEVER WRONG, USED OUTDATED REGULATIONS AND TECHNO JARGON TO JUSTIFY IT'S DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC WELL BEING, STALLED IN PROVIDING ANY COMMUNICATION VIOLATING ITS OWN TIMELINES, CONFIRMED ITS REPUTATION AS WORKING TO ENHANCE AIRLINE PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PUBLIC IT SUPPOSEDLY SERVES, AND IGNORED COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS TO FIXING THE MESS IT CREATED.

The FAA stated it would not be making any airspace changes under Step Two.  It reiterated that any proposed changes under Step Two would be at it's sole discretion and so has now said:  NO CHANGES.  It would appear the FAA just went through the steps that the settlement agreement stipulated and having done so, can now say it has met all obligations.  The FAA summarily rejected the proposals from the City of Scottsdale, SCANA and Sky Harbor Airport saying they were unsafe and would cause conflicts with other air traffic.  However, so did the westbound changes it was forced to make. But somehow the FAA worked through and eliminated those conflicts.  The FAA callously  used the Step One and Step Two process to string everyone along, taking an excessive amount of time to do so, then slammed the door shut.

The FAA received 1526 comments from the April workshops, almost all of them regarding noise and flight path concerns.  Instead of addressing or commenting on the issues that predicated the comments, the FAA chose to only state what review process it would be subject to if it chose to make "airspace or procedure changes".  It has no stated plans to do so.  It enlightened us by telling us all about FAA Regulations 14CFR Part 150, NEPA, FAA Order 150 1.F, Section 106 and several DNL sound level stats.  Consequently, the FAA totally ignored the issue as it related to eastbound departures, which is what a majority of the comments addressed. 

The FAA presented two concepts at the April workshops.  Concept One would reroute a part of the east/northbound traffic from over Scottsdale to east of the mountains where it predominately flew before.  Concept Two would split arriving traffic coming from the east and flying over Scottsdale into two arrival paths.  133 comments were received regarding Concept One; 110 were in favor of the Concept, most of those with some modifications.  219 comments were received regarding Concept Two; a majority, 138 were opposed to the concept.  But apparently these "concepts" were just a strategy to offer false hope to our communities.  The FAA does not address why these concepts are now being scrapped.  Instead, it only discussed how suggested modifications to the concepts are unacceptable.

The FAA stated that a "new action" would be necessary to make any new airspace changes.  But it did not state any "new action" would be undertaken.  A "new action" will likely only be possible by utilizing legal action.

SCANA will be meeting with the City of Scottsdale and other stakeholders to discuss the next steps that can be taken that can force the FAA to comply with the Courts ruling:  "For the forgoing reasons, we grant the petitions, vacate the September 18, 2014 order implementing THE new flight departure routes at Sky Harbor International Airport....".  While the petition and the settlement agreement only asked for changes on westbound departures, the Court obviously did not limit it's ruling to just those.  But legal minds will now have to determine the avenues open for potential resolution.  Stay tuned.

CLICK HERE to go the FAA website to read it's update.  While there, click on the link provided to read the lengthy summary of the comments submitted.

_________________________________________

EAST VALLEY CITIES AND INDIAN NATIONS BAND TOGETHER TO SUPPORT CHANGES TO EASTERN VALLEY FLIGHT PATHS

In a letter dated December 19, 2019 to FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, Paradise Valley Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner, Fountain Hills Mayor Ginny Dickey, the President of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Bernadine Burnette and the President of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Martin Harvier asked the FAA to respond to them regarding the negative flight noise issues in their communities.  The group unanimously supported the proposal the City of Scottsdale made to the FAA to reroute departing air traffic farther to the east over unpopulated terrain.  The group also alternatively said that it would support returning the flight paths to the pre-2014 flight paths that were used before the FAA's NextGen implementation at Sky Harbor Airport that created new paths over their heavily populated communities.  As noted above, the FAA has refused to consider restoring the quiet and safe environment it usurped from east valley residents and communities.

CLICK HERE to read the groups letter.

Any response from the FAA to the group will be posted on the SCANA website when it becomes available.

                            __________________________________________

CHECK OUR WEBSITE OFTEN:  AIRPLANENOISE.ORG

You can email us at scanaphx@gmail.com

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.