By Phil Corso
With planes flying overhead, elected officials and community leaders gathered in Bayside Friday morning to lower the volume on airline noise passing over the area.
State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) joined with state Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) and Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece to protest a sudden increase in air traffic coming from nearby LaGuardia Airport affecting neighborhoods in Bayside, Bay Terrace and Flushing.
“My office has been inundated with phone calla from homeowners who are irate at this abrupt increase in air traffic over their homes, which is causing an intolerable amount of noise pollution,” Avella said. “Residents are unable to open their windows and enjoy these summer months.”
Avella and Braunstein said their offices reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, which notified them about a six-month departure procedure being tested out of LaGuardia. The elected officials said they did not receive definitive time frames as to when the trials would conclude after hearing constituent complaints as early as June.
“It is outrageous that our community was not notified prior to the start of the FAA’s flight departure testing and that we have still not been informed of its end date,” Braunstein said.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency is evaluating the departure path known as the Flushing for planes taking off from LaGuardia and turning towards the northeast part of the borough.
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
