N. Hempstead Asks FAA to Redirect Air Traffic

The Town of North Hempstead wants the Federal Aviation Administration to redirect their air traffic so residents can live in peace.

Residents are continuously calling the Town due to the incessant aircraft noise occurring over their communities, according to Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth.

The low flying aircraft wakes up residents in the early morning and keeps them awake at night, she says.

“Persistent aircraft noise is not merely an annoyance, it is hazardous to our health,” Bosworth said in a press release. “Like many other communities, residents of our Town work hard to enjoy an excellent quality of life. This is being threatened by the constant drone of low flying aircrafts.”

The Town is requesting the FAA to redirect air traffic so it approaches JFK Airport from the south and to lower the aircraft noise threshold from 65 DNL to 55 DNL, which is the day-night average sound level or an average noise level over a 24-hour period.

“Many Town residents are upset and I share their frustration,” said Bosworth, who wrote a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta about the issue.

Read the letter below:

“At a recent New York Community Aviation Roundtable meeting, the FAA represented that, for safety reasons, airplanes must land into the wind. However, on several recent occasions, when the wind was light and its direction varied, aircrafts circled over the Town and approached JFK airport from the north. June 6th was one of those days and many of my constituents registered complaints…In these conditions, aircrafts could have approached from any direction, yet they approached the airport from the north, passing over parts of the Town at an altitude of less than 1,500 feet, subjecting Town residents to constant, deafening aircraft noise…

As you already know from studies commissioned by the FAA, any noise above 55 DNL increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Indeed, a recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that for every 10 decibels of airplane noise, the risk of cardiovascular hospitalization increases by 3.5 percent. The study also found that ZIP codes with higher airplane noise have more heart-related hospitalizations. This is why many countries and organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and the World Health Organization use 55 DNL as their accepted threshold. I encourage you to follow their lead. Many Town residents are upset and I share their frustration. Senator Charles Schumer has already written to you, asking you to take action and we are grateful for his leadership. I too am asking you to take action by directing aircrafts to approach JFK Airport from the south and by reducing the aircraft noise threshold from 65 DNL to 55 DNL.”

The TONH created two committees in 2015 to serve as advisors to elected officials regarding the airplane noise issue. The committed created an airplane noise newsletter in April 2016 that can be found on the Town’s website.

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