Editor,
I would like to thank Rep. Dana Rohrabacher for his help with the FAA, the airplane noise over Laguna Beach and putting the SoCal Metroplex on the radar screen, so to speak, of Congress.
Rep. Rohrabacher wrote to the FAA requesting that the planes fly farther out in the ocean and cross land at higher altitudes to minimize the noise and pollution. He received what amounts to a pat on the head, stock answer from the regional director of the FAA – pabulum – saying that any adjustment to the flight path (that they just instituted in March) would have to be studied and reviewed. Funny that they didn’t do that when switching from the old flight paths, which is precisely what the Laguna Beach lawsuit is all about.
Rep. Rohrabacher then went one step further since he got no real response from the FAA. He added two amendments to HB 2997 or the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization Bill. They basically say that planes shall fly no lower than necessary for safety over the SoCal Metroplex and that safety should be considered first and community concerns be second in analyzing changes to the flight path.
This is extremely important because this was not done before they created the new flight paths in March. Toni Iseman and Rob Zur Schmeide, the Laguna Beach Aviation Committee council members, will be very happy to use this information in the mediation proceedings for our lawsuit. Thank you Rep. Rohrabacher.
Michele Monda, Laguna Beach
Well done Michele! For the endless and dogged work you have done on this you deserve some traction… hope this eventually helps. Best, Charlotte
Noise and pollution from planes? Could Rhorabacher write to the DOT about re-routing 6 million visiting day-trippers and their cars? Now that would be productive.