Officials at John Wayne Airport and the local Federal Aviation Administration office are getting an earful of complaints from some Laguna Beach residents about increased airline traffic and noise, city officials confirmed.
“With the exception of Santa Anas, we’ve never had huge jets over our house,” said Laguna Canyon resident Keri Barriga, who described being subjected to nonstop flyovers from 7 a.m. until past 12 a.m. Airport officials told her post-midnight arrivals were international flights en route to LAX. “One of the guys from the FAA said basically get your friends together and start screaming,” she said.
City Manager John Pietig started receiving complaints in April and has delivered them to aviation officials, but expressed uncertainty about the scope of the problem. “I don’t know there has been an increase. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain what flights are causing the problem. The info I’m getting is not completely consistent.”
Airport authorities say noise complaints from Newport Coast and Laguna Beach have not markedly changed even as the total volume of flights has descended since peaking in 2007.
One North Laguna resident that keeps an expert eye on the local skies has also not observed any changes overhead. Spider Wills, an aircraft recognition expert for the U.S. Air Force from 1963-65 who still tracks planes recreationally, said, “I haven’t noticed anything irregular at all. I would say it’s about standard, and standard altitude. I watch aircraft all the time. It’s not like they are flying low and buzzing the place. The guy that’s irritating is sometimes the sheriff’s department flies around here and they make a lot of noise, but what are you going to do?”
Newport Beach resident Bob Pastore, a 37-year pilot and air traffic control consultant to the FAA, described a recent incremental change in the sanctioned departure path from John Wayne airport in the April 1 edition of the Newport Beach Independent.
“JWA has two primary departure paths for airliners. If they are headed for the northwest or the Bay Area, the navigation chart follows the Back Bay, then to Catalina Island and a right turn towards LAX. Flights heading east, southeast, and northeast cross the shoreline then arc to the left to several charted waypoints downcoast, and then fly to Thermal, a navigation radio beacon just north of the Salton Sea. It is these flights which were causing the problem.”
These waypoints form a flight path known as STREL, a line that arcs approximately 15 miles over the ocean to allow planes 
room to ascend at least 7,000 feet before circling back over land with less audible impact. Previously, planes were directed even further out.
According to Pastore and the observations of local residents, a significant number of planes are cutting straight across the approved flight curve, putting them directly over the communities between Balboa Island and Dana Point at a much lower altitude and blasting them with engine noise.
When he flew, Pastore admits he routinely asked air traffic controllers for permission to cut the corner, a fuel- and time-saving maneuver.
FAA representative Ian Gregor in Los Angeles said there has been no appreciable change over the area in flight tracks, the actual path taken by aircraft, though he provided no specific accounting of flight deviations.
Pastore, who lives in Cameo Shores, attended a recent meeting with FAA officials and Newport Coast residents as a technical advisor. He said a representative of TRACON, the Southern California air traffic control body that directs pilots after they depart from their airport of origin, also received complaints from Laguna’s city manager. “So it’s a downcoast issue for everyone from Balboa Peninsula all the way to Dana Point,” he told residents.
Pastore notes that southbound flights from LAX circumnavigate the Palos Verdes Peninsula to avoid aggravating residents.
“I assure you the people on the coastline there many years ago had discussion with LAX people to avoid over flight. We just want the same consideration here that was given to their airspace years ago,” he said. “We are walking a fine line here with the FAA. We have to find a way to get the airplanes to fly the STREL completely. Our issue is where they are turning overhead.”
Citizens of Orange County, we need your voice. People are being bullied by employees of our local airport. If someone calls in a noise complaint, they get a jet path over their home instantly, illegally low. One neighbor of ours is over 60, been married 30 years, never been in trouble, own a home and business here in Orange County. Had their first jet within 15 minutes of their first very polite call in 2009, asking if the student pilots could stop doing stall maneuvers over all of our homes. It’s illegal. For the past 7 years and 4 months, jets from JWA way too low all day, jets way too low from LAX all night every night. Were here 11 years before that fateful call and never had one jet over this hill. (It seems that sleep deprivation is one of their favorite bully tactics) Awakened almost every night, X marks-the-spot chem trails over their home, dive bombed by private planes every day several times at their home, restaurants, bookstores, church, the beach, etc. It’s been going on for too long. Our new director, came to our county from LAX on November 13, 2015 stating in the newspaper that he was going to stick to the curfew. We were all so hopeful and praying that this nightmare would end. WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE FOOTAGE OF WHAT HE DID OVER OUR HILL FOR HIS ENTIRE FIRST WEEK 24/7 until he realized people were taping. Mission Viejo is over 20 miles from JWA and never had one jet over our hill before that call, just like the other people being bullied by them, and we are over 100 miles from LAX!!! We should never hear jets from any airport this far from one and there should never be chem trails in Orange County. They park A & S airport vehicles across the street from their home. There are no homes across the street from our homes. Helicopters buzz so low it shakes our homes. This is bullying at a level most people can’t imagine. Our neighbor calls this Lord of the Flies on steroids. Abuse of power by the John Wayne Airport is becoming more prevalent here in Orange County. We have found 5 other women who are dealing with the same thing here. (Read the article on the back of this flier from another woman getting the same treatment in Orange County, “Fuming Over Jet Noise” in Laguna Beach paper June 24, 2011.)When you call the airport and ask them about flights before and after hours (they are suppose to open at 7am and close at 10pm), they will tell you these are international flights. Didn’t we all vote to not have an international airport? They do whatever they want no matter what the citizens say. Please WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T CALL OR EMAIL THE AIRPORT!!! Instead, please contact the city council of Mission Viejo at 949-470-3000 and ask them to stop the bullying by JWA. There are suppose to be two flight paths here in Orange County. One over the ocean and back north under Dana Point and one due north from the airport. There should never be flights up the middle of our county, there should never be chem trails in our city skies, there should never be jets at night. These are to bully people to death, literally. There are many organizations for bullying if you are a child, but not one for adults. This needs to change. Please email your city council members, Mayor, etc. and ask them to stop the bullying by the John Wayne Airport. Thank you so big!!