Page 6
March 21, 2018
Fighter Jet Noise Targeted
C ontinued From P age 3
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The only request it approved was
to increase runways used from
two to four. The committee de-
clined to rule on closed pattern
landings since it is a safety issue,
said Philip Stenstrom, manager
of the Port of Portland’s Aviation
Noise Program.
The Guard was at the meeting
and is aware of the committee’s
decision, Stenstrom said, and the
next step is a formal response
that he will send to the Guard in a
couple of weeks.
“None of it is binding, but it
can help the Guard decide what
flight elements to include in their
operational procedures,” he said.
Stenstrom noted that the
Guard, which has been at the air-
port since 1940, and the Port of
Portland go back a long way and
will continue to work together
on noise issues for a long time to
come.
“They signed a 50-year lease
and are only in their third year,”
he said. “They’re going to be
around for a long time.”
Stenstrom said people peri-
odically complain about noise
from jets, but this time it seems
to be focused on the rapid descent
landings.
So, who decides? The Port con-
trols the airspace for about five
miles around the control tower,
Stenstrom said, but “the pilot in
command is the ultimate authority
for keeping the aircraft safe.”
Under Federal Aviation Au-
thority rules, air traffic control-
lers can overrule a pilot if safety
rules are being violated, but noise
abatement is not considered a
safety concern.
“The FAA approves for safe-
ty,” Stenstrom said. “They don’t
care about noise.”
But the noise is bone-shatter-
ing when you’re right under it,
Pritchard said, as he described
the testing period last year.
“It was awful and was bad
enough to cause me to want to
do something about it,” he said.
“It shook the house, it shook the
dishes, and it was so loud my
roommate and I couldn’t even
talk for a few minutes.”
The flights were so frequent
and intense that Pritchard said he
felt traumatized, and says mili-
tary planes shouldn’t be flying
over civilian areas at all.
“The key point is that I don’t
think they should be practicing
military maneuvers over civilian
areas,” he said. “We wouldn’t
tolerate ground troops using our
neighborhoods and this is just as
bad, it’s just 2,500 feet up.”
Pritchard says the Guard uses
the continuous descent approach
because it saves them time and
money, and Stenstrom agrees.
But the Port of Portland repre-
sentative stressed that the airport
is trying to work with the Guard
to be responsive to people’s com-
plaints.
One thing that makes Oregon
Air Guard different is that it is in
the middle of a major city. Most
Air National Guard facilities are
not, Stenstrom said. When the
Guard first started using the con-
tinuous descent approach back in
2008, it responded to the public
and modified the procedure until
it was much quieter.
“We are the only place in the
country where modification pro-
cedures were implemented, of all
the co-located military bases,”
he said. “My guess is that they
generally are not near populated
areas.”
Just when or how the Guard
will respond to the recommen-
dations of the noise committee
is unknown, said Steven Cough-
lin, spokesman for the Oregon
Air National Guard 142 Fighter
Wing. He said he would try to
find out just who from the Air
Guard attended the recent com-
mittee meeting, but had not re-
sponded by press time.
Regardless of the response,
however, the Guard can do what-
ever it wants, Stenstrom said.
“Because the FAA already ap-
proved (the landings) as safe, it’s
up to the Guard,” he said. “They
can listen to (the committee) but
they can ignore it and fly whenev-
er they like.”