Brooklyn Against Aircraft Noise
Since the Fall of 2007, BAAN has worked with government agencies and residents concerned about the increase in air traffic over Brooklyn caused by the expiration of regulations at LaGuardia and the implementation of the "Redesign of the Airspace" and "Next Gen" technology.
We have concluded that the FAA and the Port Authority of New York are only responsive to the needs of the airline industry and care nothing about the environmental impact on communities under aircraft traffic. They answer only to the airline industry.
We have conducted a vast amount of research and accumulated data over the past few years that is available on this site including data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from Jan 2006 until Sept of 2009. This data includes all flights arriving at LaGuardia under 5,000 feet with latitude, longitude, altitude, plane type, flight id etc. We used this data to prove that the FAA and the Port changed aircraft flight patterns, types of aircraft, number of aircraft and aircraft type without conducting an Environmental Impact Study as required by law.
We further concluded that the FAA falsely mislead Congress when they appropriated funds for their "Next Gen" technology when they assured Congress that this new technology would help with noise mitigation in noise sensitive areas. They have no intention of using the technology to mitigate noise, only to increase airline profitability. How many planes and how quickly can they fly them into LaGuardia is their only concern. They enumerate this before safety in their own reports to Congress.
Further, an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) was never conducted for areas in Brooklyn south of LaGuardia. The FAA maintains that nothing has changed in air traffic over Brooklyn. They further maintain that the "Redesign of the Air Space" and "Next Gen" technology will not adversely affect areas south of LaGuardia, i.e., Park Slope and other Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Read the data. You be the judge.
If you wish to obtain the FOIA data,
click here to send us an e-mail request: