Residents See Red Over JetBlue Flights Above Seal Beach

Seal Beach city leaders are asking residents to take action if they’re tired of jets flying overhead on the way into Long Beach Airport.

After about six months of increased noise complaints from residents in Seal Beach, city leaders have been lobbying JetBlue Airways and Long Beach Airport officials to shift flights, so that they no longer come in over the homes in Old Town and the Hill. However, the noise complaints have fallen on deaf ears, said City Councilwoman Ellery Deaton.

“Everyone we talk to says, ‘It’s out of our control,’ said Deaton. “We’ve been calling JetBlue until we are blue in the face. It’s not working.”

Deaton, Mayor Mike Levitt, City Manager Jill Ingram and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher met recently to work on a solution.

Ideally, the planes would shift their flights to come in over the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and Westminster Avenue, said Deaton.

“We’re not asking a lot,” she said.

However, the current airport approach is already designed to be both safe and of minimal impact to the surrounding community, said JetBlue Spokesman Alex Headrick.

“We take no unlawful shortcuts especially not in our Long Beach flights,” Headrick said.

However, residents in the community have been complaining more and more about loud planes flying overhead in the evening, Deaton said. It’s possible planes are cutting over while trying to save gas or come in before curfew, she said. Whatever, the reason, the problem has been getting worse, added Deaton.

“I had one lady tell me, ‘I keep thinking the planes are going to crash.’ She says it’s really scary,” Deaton added.

In her November newsletter to residents, Deaton asked residents to put the pressure on the airline and the airport. “While the Congressman works on the problem, we can continue working on it ourselves by calling and writing the airport and the airline whenever we notice a plane flying over our residential homes,” she wrote. “Please make a note of the time and the offending airline, then call.”

The Long Beach Airport noise complaint number is 562-570-2665 and the JetBlue customer relations number is 1-800-365-2470.