North Hempstead and Hempstead join lawsuit against FAA over low-flying airplanes. Here's what the towns want.
Fed up Nassau County residents say they have had it with Federal Aviation Administration promises to address airplane noise in neighborhoods that are not even near airports.
Newer air traffic control systems have made the path of flights narrower and lower.
This has prompted two Long Island towns to act.
"Last resort" litigation against the FAA
Hempstead and North Hempstead, which represent more than 1 million people, are joining forces with a lawsuit after the FAA was silent on their recent noise petition.
"We acknowledge that we live in the path of two of the nation's busiest airports, and we acknowledged that litigation should be a last resort, but after years of good-faith efforts being ignored our residents have arrived at that juncture," North Hempstead Supervisor Jen Desena said.
"Their concern is getting planes in the air, not the quality of life for the people who live here," Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin said.
The lawsuit contends the towns have been bombarded with a 70% increase in flights, while altitudes have dropped 1,000 feet and one runway has been overused.
"The FAA is required to consider impacts to people on the ground, the residents of the towns. They failed to do that. It is unlawful. They violated their mandated duties," said Nick Rigano, the attorney for North Hempstead and Hempstead.
The FAA told CBS News New York it won't comment on potential litigation.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order the FAA to be equitable and spread out the air traffic over communities and the ocean.
Nassau residents say enough is enough
County residents have been making noise about low-flying jets into John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport for years. Despite meetings, noise studies, and daily complaints to the FAA, Elaine Miller of the group Plane Sense Long Island says it has only gotten worse.
"One thousand seven hundred and fifty feet of a plane going over your home once every two minutes is devastating," Miller said.
She says there are 300 planes flying over her Malverne house every day.
"Once this tremendous, thunderous roar is over, you hear this high-pitched sound of the next plane coming in," Miller said.
And it's not only near airports. For 20 miles, the flight path has gotten so congested with lower-flying planes, residents have nicknamed it "The Arc of Doom."
"Mineola is quite a distance from Kennedy Airport and they just seem to be lower and lower and lower," resident Dennis Walsh said.
The FAA had agreed to keep planes more than 15 miles out to higher altitudes, but residents say that hasn't happened and it's wrong.
