Complaint Focuses On Hollywood-Burbank Airport

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has filed a lawsuit against the FAA over noise from airplanes departing from Hollywood-Burbank (Bob Hope) airport (KBUR) in southern California.

The suit demands that the FAA return to flight paths that were used before the agency implemented the Southern California Metroplex plan as part of the NextGen program. The new flight patterns take aircraft over areas that previously were not part of departure corridors. The Los Angeles Times reports that Feuer said in a Thursday news conference that the city is "fighting to get relief for tens of thousands of residents and businesses who have borne the brunt of increased noise and other impacts from these flights, and we’re urging the court to take a couple of different steps.”

The City Attorney sent a letter to the FAA in October requesting that the FAA issue an order directing air traffic controllers to follow flight tracks that were modeled in the Environmental Assessment for the 2017 Departure Procedures, and correct the erroneous "southern shift" of the Runway 15 departure tracks.

In the Thursday news conference, Feuer said the FAA "didn’t deny that flights were persistently intruding into new airspace, but instead the FAA tried to disclaim responsibility altogether.”

The FAA sent a letter to Feuer in November saying that the corridors could be affected by weather, traffic volume and aircraft capabilities.

Feuer has also filed a FOIA request for documents related to the departure procedures at Hollywood-Burbank airport.

FMI: Source report