As
Bill Sees It (Editorial): GAO
"Investigation" May Not Stop FAA Airspace Redesign Plan
Implementation!!! Millions of people are going to have more aviation
noise disturbing their sleep and health and nobody seems to be able to stop this
major environmental crime!!! Once again it is proven that the health and
welfare of millions of people on the ground are ignored in favor of the
"progress" of airport expansion. Although legal suits against the
FAA's airspace redesign plan are increasing like the decibel levels around the
N.Y. 
Upstate
New York's Stewart Airport Politicians Thrilled By The Prospect
Of Airport Expansion!!! While only a few miles away congresspeople are
fighting airport expansion, politicians (Reps. Hall and Hinchey below left) 75
miles away in upstate New York are cheering the expansion of Stewart Airport
into New York 
City's
"4th major airport!!!" Promoted to the local people as a
"regional" airport serving only local needs for air transportation, I
believe the real plan is something else. I'm sure once the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey get through with building their heavily night operating
air cargo hub and changing flight paths these same politicians will be demanding
the FAA protect their favored communities. Thailand
Community Wins Concessions From Government Over Airport Noise!!! It
was good to see that the community outrage over night flights that prompted a
Thailand community to threaten to fly balloons to distrupt air traffic over
their homes got some positive response. Governments do not like to give in to
threats from citizens, but I think they should if they are wrong and the
communities cause is just.
New
New York: Queens Borough President Wants
Airport Victims To Have A "Greater Say" In FAA's Development!!!
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall issued a call to action concerning the
Federal Airline Association’s 
(FAA) renovation of the airspace over Queens due
to a surge in air traffic and delays. After addressing her concerns in a letter
to the FAA last May, she recently redoubled her efforts to enact changes
concerning jet noise, health risks, and air pollution around the LaGuardia and
JFK areas. She said that local airport operators and municipalities should have
a greater say in the FAA’s development, and the FAA needs to enforce a system
limiting the decibel levels of aircraft noise over highly populated residential
areas. Marshall has also been working with the Port Authority to implement a
residential noise abatement program. In addition to the noise, smog pollution
emitted from the jets also creates health risks to residents in nearby
communities. According to Marshall, the congestion and increase in jets affects
the quality of life in Queens and she called on the FAA to visit the
neighborhoods surrounding the airports. “As Borough President, I count among
my constituents not only the two airports and their tenants, employees and
customers, but also more than two million residents, who make their home
here,” said Marshall. In the FAA’s Air Design Program, they admitted that
“an increasing number of jets have saturated the jet route,” but by 2011
they plan to reduce airline traffic and delays up to 20 percent. Marshall said
that the FAA could be implementing its plans for redesign during the upcoming
months. “I want the aviation industry to thrive, but not at the expense of
Queens residents.” 
Thailand:
Community Gets "Some" Compensation For Airport Noise Assault!!!
– After nearly one year of wrangling with aviation
authorities, there has been some progress in compensation disbursement to
victims of noise pollution around Suvarnabhumi airport. According to the
Airports of Thailand (AoT), the company is ready to allocate a budget of 2.1
million baht which will go towards a mobile medical unit for residents of the
Lad Krabang area in Samut Prakarn province. The mobile medical units will be in
service during the weekends from 9:00am-15:30pm until November 2007. Another
900,000 baht has also been set aside for Lad Krabang district authorities to use
in dealing with flood problems. The move comes just weeks after a threat was
made by a group of affected residents to release balloons to disrupt air traffic
if their calls for help were not answered. 
Logan
Airport, Boston, Student Arrested For Wearing Bomb Looking Art -- An MIT
student wearing what turned out to be a fake bomb was arrested at gunpoint
Friday at Logan International Airport and later claimed it was artwork,
officials said. Star Simpson, 19, had a computer circuit board and wiring in
plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing, said State Police
Maj. Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport. "She said that it
was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day," Pare said at
a news conference. "She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud
of the art and she wanted to display it." Simpson was charged with
disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device. A not guilty plea was entered
for her and she was released on $750 bail. During the hearing, Simpson smiled as
she entered wearing a T-shirt and sandals. After she posted bail, she left in a
taxi with a man who identified himself as her boyfriend, but neither would
answer more questions from reporters. Prosecutor Wayne Margolis had requested
$5,000 bail, saying Simpson showed a total disregard for the situation she was
in -- an airport after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"I oppose the FAA's integrated airspace alternative because it will route
more air traffic over residential neighborhoods," U.S. Rep. Christopher
Shays, R-Bridgeport, said in a statement. "I will continue to fight this
proposal and work to help other members understand why the FAA simply must
consider the quality-of-life issue."
The measure requires the GAO to investigate alternatives, including allowing
airlines to negotiate schedules, charging peak-hour and congestion pricing at
busy airports and assigning slots to airlines and quotas for flights.
The measure, co-sponsored by Shays and U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., was an
amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Act. The amended act passed, 267-151.
New Canaan First Selectwoman Judy Neville said the amendment would have no
binding affect on the FAA's plan regardless of GAO findings, but she said it
is a step in the right direction.
"If the GAO report is critical of the plan, it would further our
case," she said. "I hope it creates a united effort."
Officials from New Canaan and eight other communities, including Stamford,
will meet Tuesday to continue investigating legal action against the FAA. The
towns have 60 days from the plan's Sept. 5 adoption to file suit.
Heather Wolf, a resident of Pound Ridge, N.Y., who opposes the plan and
manages a Web site called www.ourairspace.org, said the amendment did not go
far enough, because it does not postpone the plan's implementation until
the GAO study is completed.
"At this point, we have all of the area elected officials admitting to
the fact that this project is flawed and needs congressional oversight, yet
nobody is going far enough to stop the implementation," Wolf said.
Current air traffic patterns in the New York region have been in place since
the 1960s. The FAA says the redesign plan is part of efforts to decrease
flight delays, increase airport capacity, improve airspace efficiency and
improve air traffic safety across the nation.
In the proposal, the FAA called the airspace around New York City some of the
nation's most congested and referred to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data
ranking the city's three airports - Newark, LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy -
among the Top 10 of the country's most delay-prone airports.
A 2005 GAO review of the FAA's Operational Evolution Plan, which includes
airspace redesign initiatives, said the FAA's projections showed the plan
would not solve the problems associated with growing air travel. The entire
plan's implementation would reduce delays in the New York airports by 1
percent to 7 percent, according to the report.
That report also said there were alternatives not included in the FAA plan,
including the introduction of congestion pricing at LaGuardia Airport.
An FAA spokesman declined to comment on the amendment.