Increase In Jet Noise Above Santa Monica Mountains Prompts Study

LOS ANGELES, CA — You're not hearing things — the jet noise really is much, much worse over the Sherman Oaks area lately. In fact it's gotten 622 percent worse over the last year, according to city officials.

The Los Angeles City Council recently voted to call on the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a noise study at Van Nuys Airport in an effort to get a handle on the problem. The move is the first step in convincing the FAA to alter the procedures that shifted more planes over the neighborhood in 2017. Residents have been complaining about the noise increase ever since.

After authorizing a phase-out of the use of Stage 2 jet engines at Van Nuys Airport that resulted in significantly fewer noise complaints from residents and businesses, the FAA in 2017 unilaterally implemented a change to a longstanding ``no early turns" instruction for take-offs that resulted in departing jets being unable to make turns until they were south of the Sepulveda Basin, according to the unanimously approved motion.

The change placed turning jets over Encino, Sherman Oaks and other residential neighborhoods, as well as the Santa Monica Mountains, at low altitudes instead of those turns taking place over the unpopulated Sepulveda Basin, resulting in a 622 percent increase in noise complaints in the year after the change was implemented, according to the motion.

The motion instructs Los Angeles World Airports to formally request that the FAA undertake a Part 175 process at Van Nuys Airport, which is a procedure the FAA administrator can invoke for adopting navigation departure procedures or amending existing procedures that would direct aircraft over noise-sensitive areas.

The motion was also amended to ask the FAA to take into account the relationship between any changes in departing flight guidelines, instructions or procedures at Van Nuys Airport on the noise impacts on Los Angeles communities caused by flights departing from Hollywood Burbank Airport.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.