Quote of the Week: "Simply put, we're talking about an industry that can lead to more than 150,000 jobs that pay family sustaining wages here in Luzerne County," Pennsylvania State Representative Todd A. Eachus who is pushing jobs for quality of life trade-off  for a heavily night-operating air cargo hub in Hazelton, Pennsylvania

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #422.........................................................................April 1,  2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm  The PASSUR airport flight tracking system at many major U.S. airports  http://www.passur.com/sites.htm (you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy rockaway@prodigy.net

Night Operating Air Cargo Cancer Spreading!!!

As Bill Sees It: (Editorial): NIGHT Operating Air Cargo Industry Looking For Victims: All development is not progress and all growth is not good; sometimes it is cancerous. While we have made some gains with the goals of cleaner air and water, even with President Moronic Polluter in charge, noise pollution is increasing as the air cargo industry expands.  Airports are cancer causers and air cargo airports not only cause cancer they destroy people's sleep and health. The same sort of short sighted, greedy polluters that have brought us global warming are promoting air cargo airports, which by the way are major contributor to the global warming problem. Promising to "revitalize" and "save" poor, minority communities, the air cargo industry is desperately looking for new places to expand their sleep disturbing night operations. The Northeast seems to be especially targeted recently with Hazelton, Pennsylvania and Newburgh, New York latest on the air cargo industry's hit list. Air Cargo Industry Doing Public Relations Campaign In Targeted Communities? Already appearing in these communities are glowing newspaper stories  telling the public about how wonderful it will be having a giant airport in their backyard. Hardly a word is spoken about the price they are going to have to pay with lost sleep because of night plane operations and increased air pollution. Most of these stories look like press releases from the air cargo industry. Local politicians, even some who consistently portray themselves as active environmentalists, have joined in the parade of people who want to inflict these environmental horrors on their own constituents. Polls, like the one from the New York newspaper, the Times Herald Record show that almost a quarter of the public are still not buying their jobs for quality-of-life trade-off.

Newburgh, New York, (Letter to the editor) Stewart Expansion A Disgrace:  All the recent positive press surrounding the growth of Stewart Airport has left out the voice of those who live in the direct flight path of this expansion. I can say that it will be a miserable existence having planes constantly flying over my home at all hours of the day and night. Many of us have lived here for years under the threat of expansion, dreading what it would do to our quality of life, not to mention home values. I am sure that its supporters might think differently if they had to deal with the noise of jets, sometimes so loud you can't have a phone conversation or hear the television! What are we willing to give up to be able to catch a quick flight to Florida? This entire concept seems like a nightmare to me and many of my neighbors. We feel like if we don't sell and move now, we may lose out later when we have a mini-JFK in our backyard. What a disgrace — people live here! Kristen Gehlhoff, Newburgh, New York Editor's Note: At least one person isn't buying into the Port Authority of NY/NJ scam. http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070401/OPINION/704010318 

New Canaan, Connecticut: Community Forms Group To Address Airspace Redesign Plan: A proposed rerouting of aircraft over the Northeast would reduce travel delays without creating major noise disturbances for residents below, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said this week. But officials in New Canaan, who last week formed a committee to study the issue, say the changes will be a threat from above. “The FAA redesign has been a sleeper, but we won’t be sleeping as well if it is implemented,” 125th District State Rep. John Hetherington said. “The re-routing of aircraft over southwestern Connecticut threatens the quality of life that we take for granted in New Canaan. We need to act quickly with other towns likely to be impacted before the FAA’s decision becomes final in late summer.” “New Canaan and Greenwich will present a strong, united front,” First Selectman Judy Neville said yesterday. “We will vigorously oppose this proposal.” The newly formed New Canaan Air Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting at 9 a.m. today, Thursday, March 29, in the Town Hall Auditorium. The group is headed by Selectman Paul Giusti, Rep. Hetherington, Town Council member Kit Devereaux and Jim Beall, a New Canaan resident and licensed pilot. As early as August, the FAA could begin implementing the area’s first major airspace redesign since the 1960s, changing the ways planes come and go at five of the region’s busiest airports. Most notably for Connecticut, the redesign, which the FAA officially chose as its “preferred alternative” last Friday, would shift the flight paths of planes arriving at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, pushing traffic 30 miles east, from Putnam County and Westchester County, N.Y., to Fairfield County. http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/newcanaan/p1-faa-3-29.shtml Editor's Note: Better (very) late than never.

Civil War Erupts Over FAA's New Funding Proposal in Washington:  "In the next decade, demand for air travel is expected to triple. At the same time, the Aviation Trust Fund, which currently pays many of the costs associated with running the FAA's air traffic control, is at all-time low. The agency is also trying to upgrade to using the global positioning system, which would allow it to better manage congestion and avoid air traffic gridlock. Its new funding proposal, the FAA says, will enable that. It is absolutely a crucial turning point, not just for the FAA but for future of our entire aviation system," Marion Blakey, the top official at the agency, tells U.S. News. "We're at the pivot point where either we decide to make a solid, sustainable commitment to the [upgraded next-generation] system ... or we miss that opportunity altogether." However, skeptics and members of the general aviation community–those who use small planes and business jets–are howling over how the FAA plans to get there. The agency has proposed abolishing the 7.5 percent tax on airplane tickets that currently makes up about half of the money going into the Aviation Trust Fund each year and replacing it with a more than 200 percent increase in taxes on most aircraft fuels, as well as special fees for planes using domestic airspace.  http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070330/30faa.htm 

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                                    Important Aviation News Stories This Week

Big, busy Stewart could be an environmental disaster

I believe the Port Authority's plan for Stewart Airport is the worst environmental impact ever to be inflicted on the Hudson Valley. I think it is insanity to allow out-of-towners and local politicians to make a decision of this magnitude without a full public scrutiny of the implications. There seems to be a massive effort to rush this project through so there will be no public discussion.

Don't people know that the other major New York City area airports have more than 1,000 flights a day each? The Port Authority and politicians are assuring everyone that the new Stewart Airport will not be on the same scale. What they mean is it will take them a few years to get up to that volume of traffic. I don't think people up here know what it's like to live near a major city airport with that many jumbo jets taking off and landing all day and night. I do. I moved up here to recover my health after the Port Authority moved a night flight path over my home and destroyed my sleep.

A recent poll by the Times Herald-Record showed that 25 percent of online readers were "concerned" about the Port Authority takeover. I think these concerns should be addressed before the takeover is complete. The regional economic summit at SUNY Ulster on March 20 was nothing more than a sugarcoated, promotional exercise by the Port Authority and local planners who, I believe, have little concern for the health and quality of life of Hudson Valley people. Just the fact that this conference was held many miles away from the communities that will receive the worst of the impact and was intended only for businessmen and not the public should raise warning flags to those who are concerned about what Stewart Airport will be turned into.

I believe that the Port Authority plans for Stewart have nothing to do with passenger flights but everything to do with building a giant, mostly night-operating, air cargo hub. The air cargo industry has evolved into a nighttime operation because most major city airports have their daytime slots taken up by passenger flights and only the night is available. Night flights are the worst environmental impact that an airport has and get the most complaints.

If having a giant airport in the Hudson Valley is such a good idea, then why are there so many communities, like those near Teterboro Airport, complaining about them? Their congressman, Steve Rothman, tells his constituents on his Web site how proud he is that he stopped the Port Authority making Teterboro a "fourth major airport in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area alongside JFK, Newark and La Guardia Airports." What Teterboro communities and their congressmen fought so hard against, Hudson Valley environmentalist congressmen Maurice Hinchey and John Hall are pushing. Why is what Teterboro didn't want good for us?

If we can't get our politicians to stop this monstrosity, maybe we can get a 10 p.m.-to-7 a.m. curfew on night flights agreed to before the takeover. At least Hudson Valley residents would get some peace at night so we could sleep undisturbed. That's what La Guardia and Teterboro airports have. If the Port Authority leaders are not secretly planning a night-operating air cargo hub, they will agree. If they don't, it will be clear that there is a conspiracy to destroy our quality of life by an evil cabal.

Bill Mulcahy lives in New Paltz and is editor of the Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter.