Asks That Late-Night Flights Be Redirected Away From Residential Areas

Washington D.C.'s representative to Congress has written a letter to the FAA reroute air traffic during construction at Washington Reagan National Airport (KDCA), saying noise from the jets on approach to the airport is affecting the health of the residents living in the flight path.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) (pictured) sent the letter to the FAA Thursday, asking for changes to its policies on late-night and early-morning flights into Reagan National Airport during construction on the main runway. Earlier, Norton had called FAA officials to address the complaints, but residents have continued calling her office, saying that they have experienced deafening, terrorizing noise and lights from planes flying directly over their homes in the dead of night. In her letter to Michael P. Huerta, Acting Administrator of the FAA, Norton requested that the agency explore alternative approaches for airplanes flying into Reagan National Airport during the late evening and early morning hours until runway construction is complete in April and the airport can return to normal operations. She also suggested that the FAA consider doing some of the necessary work during business hours or on weekends to help curb so many flights being diverted into a new landing pattern that disturbs residents.
 
“We understand that the aging runway needs to be repaired, but the complaints we have been receiving are not the usual air traffic noise complaints,” Norton said. “Some homes shake every time an airplane is landing, and the sleep and health of residents are being wrecked because of it. I am asking the FAA to revisit how it can complete its projects at Reagan without disrupting the lives and health of nearby residents.”

The Washington Post reports that the airport's main runway is currently closed for construction between 2300 and 0600 EST, and that the last flight scheduled into the airport on weekdays is at 0100. Flights resume at 0600. Flights using the alternate runway are the ones generating the complaints to Congresswoman Norton.

Construction us expected to be wrapped up in the spring of 2012. DCA officials said that next month, a shift in construction times should allow late flights to use the main runway unless weather conditions push flights to the alternate.

FMI: www.norton.house.gov, www.faa.gov, www.metwashairports.com