WASHINGTON: Two Port of Seattle commissioners and members of the public gave the Federal Aviation Administration an earful at a Tuesday afternoon meeting. The issues: Noise from the state’s largest commercial airport and more transparency from the federal agency in charge of the nation’s skies. “As we continue to grow,” said Commissioner Stephanie Bowman, “it’s just going to get worse.”
Since 2013, Port of Seattle commissioners say flights at Sea-Tac have increased about 30 percent. Airport noise has been big news around Sea-Tac since a citizens group in Burien sued the FAA about the re-routing of smaller commuter flights over the Seattle suburb and won this month in federal court. FAA officials gave a presentation on their “NextGen” portfolio of initiatives. FAA Deputy Regional Manager David Suomi says it’s an ongoing effort to achieve the multiple goals of more efficient routes, better communication between the cockpit and the control tower, less noise pollution and less fuel waste.
Improved technology plays a big role. Since the 1950s, the FAA has been using radar to track the location of flights. Newer GPS and digital technology can allow for flight paths to deviate no more than a wingspan instead of several miles. GPS navigation also allows for controlled, smoother airplane descents instead of the stair-step approach that’s been used for decades. A controlled descent would mean less use of the engines and therefore significantly quieter. “It has benefits of every single phase of flight,” says Suomi, “Flight planning, push back from the gate, taxiing, take-off, descent, final approach and landing.”
So far, though, these have only been rolled out on the west side of the airport. In this area, the idealized flight path shown by Port and FAA officials would go right over the center of Puget Sound waters, turning in at Elliot Bay and continuing over industrial areas that straddle the Duwamish River towards Sea-Tac. Future flight paths over Puget Sound do not have green or red lines over the Burien area during what’s called a “south flow” when the prevailing winds come from the south/southwest direction. Something Sea-Tac officials say is the configuration roughly 65% of the time. The opposite northerly flow does still have some flights going over the Burien area, where noise complaints have been the most vocal in recent months. The FAA says there’s no hard timeline on flights on the east side of Sea-Tac. “We’re are being very deliberate to being certain we’re doing [these roll outs] safely,” says Suomi of efforts he says are actually several years ahead of schedule. “It’s more of a crawl, walk run type of approach.”
