4 ms·

It's a neat idea, but it's not clear from the article what these complaints accomplish. Are the airport administrators held accountable in any way? Are they re

It's a neat idea, but it's not clear from the article what these complaints accomplish. Are the airport administrators held accountable in any way? Are they required to respond to the complaints? Maintain a low threshold? It seems like this could just be a placebo button.

ilaksh 8y ago
What are they supposed to do? They can't move the airport and if they change the routing then someone else will complain.
- runarberg 8y ago
  Sometimes you wonder if they could possible move the route a little to the side. I live on an island close to Seattle, and airplains flying from California will fly straight over the island, almost like it is on purpose. You wonder why they couldn't move the route a little to the west or a little to the east and fly over the sea instead. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041 https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041
  - neffy 8y ago
    There are two answers to this. The obvious one is, yes of course they could. The annoying one, is that it has to be negotiated, world wide flight maps would have to be updated, flight traffic control reprogrammed, and it is just easier by far in terms of bureaucracy not to do this stuff. After all, people must have known when they chose to live there... The flight plan into Keflavik in Iceland goes directly over Mount Hekla (the way point is Mount Hekla, which probably made more sense back in the days of visual navigation). Mount Hekla is a fairly active Volcano, and is a little overdue for its next explosion, for which there might be at most about half an hours warning time. After all, people must know the risks when they choose to fly...
  - btgeekboy 8y ago
    FlightAware on mobile isn’t letting me zoom in to see which island you’re on. There’s a few pilots on HN; we can help you look it up. It’s probably not on purpose as in “haha let’s fly over this guy’s house” but more likely to that it keeps traffic in the busy Seattle area flowing smoothly. You can certainly write to the local Flight Standards District Office and ask them to consider using new waypoints and procedures, or ask them for an official explanation.
    - 333c 8y ago
      It looks like Vashon Island (from Google Maps).
      - btgeekboy 8y ago
        That one’s easy then - to the west, and you’re on the approach path to JBLM. To the east, you’re too close to SEA to properly intercept the final approach course. Vashon Island is also far less populated than the land to the east of SEA.
        chihuahua 8y ago
        For those not familiar with the Seattle area, JBLM is Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where McChord is an air force base.
freyyj 8y ago
There's a little more related information on this further down in the article: > Even before the arrival of Airnoise, airports had been dealing with a surge in complaints linked to the Federal Aviation Administration’s effort to modernize the air traffic system, known as NextGen. > The multibillion-dollar program is changing the way air traffic is managed, moving it from radar to satellite navigation. Proponents say it makes the air traffic system more efficient because it allows planes to fly more direct routes to their destinations. > But the shift has angered residents, who live in neighborhoods that are below the new flight paths. Residents in Northwest Washington sued the FAA over the changes but lost in court. A suit filed by the state of Maryland is pending. My interpretation is that at least some of these people (see the lawsuit mentioned in the last paragraph — Maryland is where the woman mentioned at the top of the article lives) may be hoping to have NextGen reverted, which would send the planes elsewhere. It seems unlikely to happen though.
Anechoic 8y ago
Are the airport administrators held accountable in any way? Not necessarily the administrators, but the airlines (and sometimes individual pilots) can be held responsible and fined if the noise complaint is due to a pilot not following the proper takeoff or landing procedure. Are they required to respond to the complaints? The answer is generally yes, not necessarily to the complainant, but they may have to report complaint statistics to the public and FAA. The FAA takes this very seriously.

ilaksh 8y ago

What are they supposed to do? They can't move the airport and if they change the routing then someone else will complain.

runarberg 8y ago
Sometimes you wonder if they could possible move the route a little to the side. I live on an island close to Seattle, and airplains flying from California will fly straight over the island, almost like it is on purpose. You wonder why they couldn't move the route a little to the west or a little to the east and fly over the sea instead. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041 https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041
- neffy 8y ago
  There are two answers to this. The obvious one is, yes of course they could. The annoying one, is that it has to be negotiated, world wide flight maps would have to be updated, flight traffic control reprogrammed, and it is just easier by far in terms of bureaucracy not to do this stuff. After all, people must have known when they chose to live there... The flight plan into Keflavik in Iceland goes directly over Mount Hekla (the way point is Mount Hekla, which probably made more sense back in the days of visual navigation). Mount Hekla is a fairly active Volcano, and is a little overdue for its next explosion, for which there might be at most about half an hours warning time. After all, people must know the risks when they choose to fly...
- btgeekboy 8y ago
  FlightAware on mobile isn’t letting me zoom in to see which island you’re on. There’s a few pilots on HN; we can help you look it up. It’s probably not on purpose as in “haha let’s fly over this guy’s house” but more likely to that it keeps traffic in the busy Seattle area flowing smoothly. You can certainly write to the local Flight Standards District Office and ask them to consider using new waypoints and procedures, or ask them for an official explanation.
  - 333c 8y ago
    It looks like Vashon Island (from Google Maps).
    - btgeekboy 8y ago
      That one’s easy then - to the west, and you’re on the approach path to JBLM. To the east, you’re too close to SEA to properly intercept the final approach course. Vashon Island is also far less populated than the land to the east of SEA.
      - chihuahua 8y ago
        For those not familiar with the Seattle area, JBLM is Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where McChord is an air force base.

freyyj 8y ago

There's a little more related information on this further down in the article: > Even before the arrival of Airnoise, airports had been dealing with a surge in complaints linked to the Federal Aviation Administration’s effort to modernize the air traffic system, known as NextGen. > The multibillion-dollar program is changing the way air traffic is managed, moving it from radar to satellite navigation. Proponents say it makes the air traffic system more efficient because it allows planes to fly more direct routes to their destinations. > But the shift has angered residents, who live in neighborhoods that are below the new flight paths. Residents in Northwest Washington sued the FAA over the changes but lost in court. A suit filed by the state of Maryland is pending. My interpretation is that at least some of these people (see the lawsuit mentioned in the last paragraph — Maryland is where the woman mentioned at the top of the article lives) may be hoping to have NextGen reverted, which would send the planes elsewhere. It seems unlikely to happen though.

Anechoic 8y ago

Are the airport administrators held accountable in any way? Not necessarily the administrators, but the airlines (and sometimes individual pilots) can be held responsible and fined if the noise complaint is due to a pilot not following the proper takeoff or landing procedure. Are they required to respond to the complaints? The answer is generally yes, not necessarily to the complainant, but they may have to report complaint statistics to the public and FAA. The FAA takes this very seriously.