Phoenix legal defeat prompts FAA to address noise concerns
PHOENIX — Nearly 100 people strolled through the high school cafeteria throughout the evening, studying colored graphs of flight takeoffs and jotting down comments for officials.
More than three years after they awoke to find window-rattling flights rerouted in an airborne highway above their homes, residents of Phoenix’s downtown historic districts said they finally felt the Federal Aviation Administration was listening.
A court victory by Phoenix and neighbourhood groups over the FAA last year has prompted the agency to be more responsive to residents as it continues to beat back noise complaints around the United States over the air traffic modernization plan known as “NextGen.”
While challenges by residents of Washington’s Georgetown neighbourhood and other jurisdictions are still being heard in court, people in other affected areas such as Santa Cruz, California, have not sued the agency because they believe their complaints are being considered. Phoenix residents said they appreciated the FAA’s current approach.