Noise from low flights raising hackles

Barbara Diamond

City officials sounded off Tuesday about the noise from commercial

airlines flying over the city at low altitudes.

“People ask me what it is like to be mayor,” Mayor Toni Iseman

said. “It is the phone ringing at odd hours -- 7 a.m. or midnight.

One consistent complaint is about the noise from commercial flights.”

The city will monitor the altitude, flight origination and

destination and the specific airlines before taking any action on the

low-altitude flights.

“LANO urges that every citizen and every civic and neighborhood

organization become actively involved in this issue,” said Ed

Merrilees, vice president of the Laguna North community association.

“It is a quality of life issue for all Lagunans.”

Merrilees said that it now seems that all flights leaving John

Wayne Airport for the East Coast pass over North Laguna and Top of

the World. Residents from other neighborhoods disputed that. Bluebird

Canyon residents claim they know when it is 7 a.m. because that is

when flights begin departing from the airport and shortly thereafter

fly over their homes.

“I notice it more than I used to,” said Iseman, who lives in Woods

Cove. “Maybe the flights are coming over more to the south. It’s more

noticeable in the morning when they intrude on the silence.”

Flights out of John Wayne Airport take off over the ocean until

released by the Federal Aeronautics Administration to turn back over

land. The low-altitude flights occur when the control tower at John

Wayne allows the pilots to turn back to land before the planes gains

a sufficiently high altitude to render them almost noiseless to the

communities below.

“Above 8,000 feet, it wasn’t that bad,” Councilman Wayne Baglin

said. “At 6,000 feet, it is very noisy. Below 6,000, it is not noise,

it is everything in your cupboard shaking.”

Not all flights come over Laguna low, prompting residents to

wonder why any of them do.

“I was particularly surprised by the variety in altitude for some

planes going to the same destinations,” mid-town resident Jacob

Cherub said.

Cherub urged the city to track and compare current flights to last

year’s, measure the sound and log it. He said he had not documented

the particular airlines making the noise.

Low-altitude flights are a fairly new problem in Laguna. After the

closure of the U.S. Marine Air Base at El Toro, some commercial

airliners began making the inland turn earlier, which saves time and

fuel. Complaining residents were told that new technology made the

earlier release possible.

“In 2001, city officials and a few concerned citizens met with FAA

brass to express our concerns about this problem,” Merrilees said.

“It appeared to us that the noise problem resulted from a change in

flight paths of commercial flights departing John Wayne heading to

eastern destinations. We were assured this was not the case, as there

had not been any change in flight paths over the years.

“We were told that the FAA would attempt to address the noise

problem by having the John Wayne control tower hold departing

commercial jets longer, before passing them off to the next air

control authority,” he said.

It worked -- for a while.

City government has little influence over the FAA, but

concentrated complaints seem to bring some relief, City Manager Ken

Frank said.

“Short of a ground swell of public opposition, I don’t think we

will get far,” Frank said. “The mayor, the city manager and 10 people

won’t help.”

Baglin said that the last time city officials met with the FAA,

they were told that it was obvious the residents didn’t want the

flights over Laguna Beach.

“They asked, ‘Do You want the flights over Dana Point?’” Baglin

said.

If the city has little legal clout over the commercial flights, it

has even less over private-owned planes. Even the FAA has little

control over he little planes that buzz the city, Frank said.

Commercial flight information, including take-off time, altitude

and destination, can be tracked at https://ocair.com.

Complaints should be directed to the John Wayne noise abatement

number, (949)252-5185, and the FAA Noise Hotline for the Western

Region at (310) 725-3638, or write the FAA Regional Administrator,

P.O. Box 92007, Los Angeles CA, 90009.