Airport gives info, not help

Jenny Marder

Long Beach Airport officials announced a new monitoring system that

will allows residents to go online and track just how low planes are

flying.

In response to complaints from angry Surf City residents, and at

the request of the City Council, airport officials made a

presentation to the council Monday that some residents say was

informational, but not very helpful.

“There wasn’t any information [given Monday night] that could tell

people how problems could be fixed,” said Huntington Beach resident

Christine Monheim, 38, who lives directly under the flight path.

Like other Surf City residents, Monheim said she is fed up with

noise pollution from low-flying planes that cross Surf City skies and

is worried that the increased flights will affect her property value.

Long Beach Airport is installing the flight tracking system that

will let Surf City residents access data on planes as they fly by.

Sighting a plane that appears to be flying too low, a resident will

be able to log on to a Web site and find the altitude, air speed,

airline and the flight’s origin and destination.

“I think that it will be very helpful to people to be able to look

at the actual altitudes,” said Kris Kunze, manager of the Long Beach

Airport.

At the City Council’s study session, Kunze briefed the city on the

airport’s history and told them that the airport is closely

monitoring the noise and altitude of planes and fining violators who

fail to comply with airport rules.

“We’d like to see this as the beginning of a dialogue,” he said.

Kunze, who lives near the intersection of Atlanta Avenue and Beach

Boulevard, said that he too notices the planes flying over his home.

Airport officials were asked to speak to the city when an upsurge

in commercial flights triggered a flood of resident complaints that

planes were flying too low and making too much noise in an otherwise

quiet town.

The Long Beach Airport underwent a growth so tremendous last year

that it has been dubbed the fastest growing airport in the country,

Kunze said. Airline capacity more than doubled in the past two years,

thanks to the arrival of Jet Blue Airlines, which snatched up all of

the available slots.

Since August 2001, the number of daily commercial flights for

planes exceeding 75,000 pounds has jumped from 14 to 37, occupying

88% of the airport’s 41 flights allowed.

“All of our slots are allocated,” Kunze said. “We expect to be at

our current maximum of 41 flights by June.”

Any or all of these planes could touch some portion of Huntington

Beach when they’re on the approach path, said Sharon Diggs-Jackson,

public affairs officer for the airport.

The Long Beach Airport has one of the most restrictive noise

ordinances in the United States, Kunze said at the meeting.

There are 18 noise monitors around the perimeter of the airport

that are frequently checked to ensure that planes are adhering to

allowable noise limits.

Normally, flights must be scheduled between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.,

but those hours can be extended from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Restrictions

are far greater in those two hours.

Those who fail to comply with these rules are fined $100 to $300.

Also, most flights remain within 1,600 to 2,800 feet in altitude.

Kunze said. But some consider this height a disturbance.

“When they come over Huntington Beach, they’re too low,” Surf City

resident Robert Dingwall said.

It’s the FAA that regulates altitude, not the Long Beach Airport,

Diggs-Jackson said.

Monheim hopes to organize a group of concerned residents to urge

the FAA to raise the altitude over Surf City, to cut back on noise.

“Another 1,500 feet would be a huge help,” she said.

Kunze said the airport will continue to monitor flight tracks and

vows to work with the FAA if they see that aircraft are not complying

with the height limits or time and noise restrictions.

“If we saw a plane flying too low, we would jawbone them and work

with the FAA,” he said. “We know that this is a sensitive issue.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].