Quote of the Week: "This (plan) is a colossal mistake," Andrews said. "I asked (Blakey) how much was it going to cost, and the answer was, ‘We don’t know.’" Quote in a news story from newly elected Congressman Joe Sestak commenting on the FAA's Airspace Redesign scheme which will bring heavy noise pollution on his Pennsylvania constituents

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #425.........................................................................April 22,  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

FAA To Punish N.Y. City Prisoners With Plane Noise!!!

As Bill Sees It: (Editorial): N.Y. City Prisoners To Get Punished By FAA!!!  The FAA's solution to their concentration of flights over N.Y. City's Rikers Island is to "fan" out the headings from the current 2 to a planned 3 heading (see picture on the right). Apparently flying over open water in a straight flight path was not even considered!!! They didn't even bother saying why they didn't. I wonder why, as the FAA has experts that can conjure up the most elaborate, technical  rationales to keep the politically connected and protected "noise sensitive" communities noise free. While I'm sure there are many that say that prisoners are put in jail for punishment and that it is a good thing that they have been selected by the FAA to have the future projected high levels of aircraft noise dumped on them... I don't agree. I think being in jail is punishment enough and being subjected to the torture of high decibel levels all day long is cruel and unusual. But of course the cruel and unusual dumping of aircraft noise on people is business as usual for the FAA who think nothing of concentrating the airport impacts on politically  "preferred" communities. Maybe the FAA polluters think that they are helping with prisoner's rehabilitation by making their stay in prison more horrific than it already is. I disagree. I believe the FAA's continued concentration of noise impacts on the mostly minority prison population will only increase the anti-social behavior of not only the prisoners, but also the guards that have to watch over them. In the FAA's own Operational Analysis of Mitigation of the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign they admit that "since the population of Rikers Island contains a higher concentration of various minority groups than the surrounding census blocks, the increased noise exposure on the island raises issues of environmental justice." In other words the FAA admits they have selected a concentration of a mostly minority community to dump LaGuardia Airport's  future increased noise impacts on!!! Upstate New York Environmental Groups Unite To Fight Stewart Airport Air Cargo Hub Scheme: While this story is getting almost no coverage from the local newspapers, several environmental groups have sent a letter to the Port Authority Executive Director, Anthony Shorris (picture on left), demanding things like a nighttime curfew and strict limits on air cargo. One of the few stories on it was in the back pages (see news clip below) of the Kingston, New York Daily Freeman (see below),  These groups also want the Port Authority to adhere to a 1993 master plan develop Stewart Airport for the communities its in not as a "reliever" airport for the N.Y. City metro area. One small local newspaper released a quote from a congressman (Rep. Hall - pictured above right) who said the lease signing will happen in a few "weeks," not in October as the Port Authority has been saying. The amount of political betrayal of  voters and duplicity with this takeover has been astounding. The PA's Shorris has promised "It will be your airport, not New York City's, not New Jersey's." Unfortunately, he said it at a meeting of businessmen, 25 miles from the heavily impacted communities. Ominously, the Port Authority has had NO meetings with not only environmentalists, but anyone from the public.

FAA To Dump High Levels Of LaGuardia Airport Noise On Prisoners: 5.1.1 Affected Area : Rikers Island is located in the middle of the East River less than one quarter of a mile from the end of runway 31. The island hosts 10 separate correctional facilities, identified in Figure 8 by the red circles. Unlike most census blocks, which are typically the size of a city block, the entirety of Riker’s Island is contained within a single census block with a single, corresponding point, or centroid, over which to measure changes in noise. As a consequence of this, the entire island is considered subject to a significant noise increase, identified as area PIWB-11LGA-A in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. In addition, since the population of Rikers Island contains a higher concentration of various minority groups than the surrounding cenus blocks, the increased noise exposure on the island raises issues of environmental justice. Editor's Note: FAAspeak translation- The FAA will continue to have LaGuardia Airport planes make a sharp turn  to the right (avoiding open water) impacting the health of a mostly minority population that has little political power to stop them. Where are the environmental and human rights organizations? This is what happens when an agency has nobody checking on what they do except themselves. It is time for some accountability for the FAA!!!

Congressmen Go To The Washington, D.C. Snake Pit To Fight Airspace Redesign Impacts On Districts:

South Caroline: Air Show Plane Crashes Into Residential Area: Local media have eyewitness accounts of the crash that killed a military pilot who was participating in a Blue Angel performance over South Carolina. “I was working at a residence across the street from the initial impact,” Fred Yelinek tells The Beaufort Gazette. “I was not looking that way at the time but was in the yard. The plane hit the top of a tree and clipped it off. The sound of that turned me around. The plane had already passed through that yard and into Shanklin Road. It exploded on impact with a giant fireball, and of course it shook the earth.” WSAV-TV has an interview with another witness who says one of the planes emitted black smoke before the crash. The Navy reports: "The pilot of the jet was joining the Delta formation for the final maneuver of the aerial demonstration when the mishap occurred. It was his second year on the team, and first year as a demonstration pilot. The other five Blue Angel jets were not involved in the incident and landed safely moments later." http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/04/eyewitness_says.html Editor's Note: There have been 24 Blue Angels pilots killed in these air shows since they started in 1946. The news story didn't say how many people on the ground have been killed.  It's time to end these dangerous exhibitions.

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                                    Important Aviation News Stories This Week

 Letter to Legislators Regarding Port Authority Acquisition of Stewart International Airport

 The acquisition of Stewart International Airport by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) has been in the forefront of the news for the past few months. Articles describing plans to develop it as a reliever airport for passengers and cargo from Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports indicate that it is likely to become the fourth major metropolitan airport.

 Although some of the economic development that will result from this expansion may have a positive impact on the region, letters to the editor and other commentaries indicate that there is widespread concern that it could also have a profound negative environmental impact.

 In his keynote address at the Hudson Valley Regional Economic Summit at SUNY Ulster on March 20, Anthony Shorris, the newly appointed Executive Director of the PA, invited the public to share their concerns with his agency.  We have accepted his offer and have presented him with the suggestions outlined in the attached letter. 

We are asking the PA to restrict its development of Stewart to the needs of the residents of this region.  We are confident that doing so will relieve the pressure at the metropolitan airports. The agency also needs to live up to its responsibilities to the residents of this region and create an airport that is compatible with its rural setting.  To accomplish this, legislators, citizens, and environmental groups need to be involved in the planning process from the beginning. 

It is for this reason that we request you to work as expeditiously as possible on behalf of your constituents to protect them from negative airport development that could drastically change this region forever. Ensuring the abatement measures outlined in the letter to Mr. Shorris could help to prevent this from happening.

 We would like to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss an agenda that would include, but not be limited to, the possibility of creating legislation to ensure these protections. We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

 Sincerely yours, 

Ulsterites Fight Overflight Noise      Maureen  Radl, Co Chair          maureenrad@aol.com  

       Susan Staples, Co Chair

       Pat Peters

       Karl Drake 

       Hank Bartosik 

Stewart Park And Reserve Coalition (SPARC)

       Sandra Kissam, President

 Mohonk Preserve

       Glenn  Hoagland, Executive Director

 Cragsmoor Association

         Jim McKenney,  President

         Joy Weber, Vice President 

 Ramapo Catskill Group of the Sierra Club

         Gene Vidal, Chair

 Basha Kill Area Association

            Paula Medley,  President

 Woodstock Overflight Focus Group

            Euphrosyne Bloom

            Martin Keith

 Friends of the Shawangunks

            H. Neil Zimmerman

 Orange Environment

            Michael Edelstein, President

 The Nature Conservancy, Eastern New York Chapter

            Cara Lee, Director, Shawangunk Ridge Program