Noise and pollution near airports has U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch looking to give residents below the flight paths a break.
Lynch has filed a bill that would allow the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to study the health impacts from planes, potentially laying the groundwork for a class action lawsuit.
The bill, filed this week by the South Boston Democrat, would direct the Federal Aviation Administration to “enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academies” for a report on the effects of noise disturbances that prompted 71,381 complaints in Massachusetts alone last year, more than 10 times the 6,811 filed in 2013, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority, which oversees Logan International Airport in Boston, Hanscom Field and Worcester Regional Airport.
“The impact of flying over the same homes all the time is a stress issue based on noise and jet fuel emissions,” Lynch said. “The goal is to collect data that could lead to a class action lawsuit.”
The problem, he said, began in 2013, when the FAA switched to a navigation system designed to save jet fuel by having planes use the most efficient routes, often flying at lower altitudes longer while making their ascents.
“As a result, thousands of flights go over the same homes every month,” Lynch said, “when we might be able to bring relief to a lot of people if those flights were sent over water or dispersed over different neighborhoods.”
For the last two years, R. John Hansman, director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation, and his students have been working to see how advanced flight procedures might be used to lessen the problem.
“The ultimate goal is to use technology to both improve the efficiency of flights and minimize adverse effects such as noise,” said Hansman.
Maryann Aberg said planes fly over her Medford home as often as every 30 seconds, sometimes at altitudes so low she can read the names of the airlines and see the pilots.
“The windows of the house rattle,” she said. “It’s impossible to carry on a conversation in your own home.”
In an email Friday, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the administration “does not comment on proposed legislation.”
Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said the agency “supports scientific research” and keeps “involved in community discussions with residents and elected officials regarding aircraft activity and supports the work by the FAA and MIT engineers, with feedback from the Massport CAC (Community Advisory Committee), to develop ways to reduce the impacts of Logan operations.”
