Special thanks to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo who asked Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) officials to join her in a roundtable meeting with community leaders regarding noise issues affiliated with airline traffic at San Francisco International Airport.
Residents from Palo Alto and on the Peninsula have complained about the noise levels and the increased number of airplane flights since the rollout of the FAA's new NextGen flight system. This system, which Congress directed the FAA to devise, requires aircraft to travel within a narrower corridor to free up airspace for commercial and military drones.
The NextGen flight system also requires pilots to descend using a continuous decrease in altitude instead of the stepped descent of the previous system. Residents say that this method increases noise as engines throttle for the decline.
Congresswoman Eshoo asked that the FAA work to improve the noise impact on the residents to the NextGen corridor.
With the entrance of Surf Air at San Carlos Airport, a significant number of complaints have been lodged by residents from North Fair Oaks, Menlo Park and Atherton. Supervisor Don Horsley, Atherton Councilwoman Elizabeth Lewis and I will be meeting with the FAA and Congresswoman Eshoo to review these concerns and seek assistance from them.