Ruling overturns FAA rerouting of Phoenix flight paths

The city of Phoenix and residents of historic neighborhoods on Tuesday cheered a court ruling to force the Federal Aviation Administration to abandon its decision three years ago to set new flight paths for one of the busiest airports in the United States.  A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier in the day agreed that the FAA’s decision in 2014 to change the routes in and out of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix was “arbitrary and capricious.” The FAA has made similar changes in flight paths at other airports around the country in recent years under the NextGen program designed to modernize the nation’s air traffic-control system.

Link:  http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/ruling-overturns-faa-rerouting-phoenix-flight-paths-49501837

Change coming for neighborhoods plagued by noisy SFO flight paths

Last week the FAA response to recommendations from the SFO Roundtable to fix jet noise issues came out. SFGate published this article about it. Note that the article mostly deals with noise from arriving flights which affects the Peninsula and South Bay. The noise we get in San Francisco is almost exclusively from the departing flights from SFO that make the U-turn and departing flights from Oakland.

Jet noise pollution in Bay Area news again

This article mentions the following:

New Federal Aviation Administration flight paths have caused an uproar in the once-serene Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as other parts of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Alameda counties, triggering a lawsuit and floods of complaints. Residents have formed more than a dozen new community groups in the South Bay alone, bearing names such as Quiet Skies NorCal.

We agree… and they could have easily added San Francisco to the list of affected counties!  and… they could have added S.C.R.E.A.A.M. to list of community groups!

Learning from Palo Alto’s Sky Posse Group…

We are starting to collaborate with our friends around the bay, including Sky Posse (a very organized and creative Palo Alto jet noise group).  To check out their website go to and to join Sky Posse’s insightful news feed   http://www.skypossepaloalto.org/

Though their recommendations and petitions are sometimes Palo Alto-centered, we have a great opportunity to echo their concerns and actions from here in San Francisco.   We can work together, since they also believe that there are many viable options to reduce noise and emissions, while meeting the goals of modernizing our airspace system.

They recently requested that their members write fairly specific letters to specific FAA personnel as we await FAA’s Initiative to Address Noise Concerns due anytime now.  If you want to know the specifics about the letter that they are recommending people write, please subscribe to their feed or contact SCREAAM via our website for more information.

SCREAAM in the News again – Front Page of Noe Valley Voice (March 2017)

Jet noise issues (and SCREAAM) are featured in this month’s issue of the Noe Valley Voice (the local paper for Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco).  You can read the article online.   Here is the link:  https://issuu.com/noevalleyvoice/docs/201703

SCREAAM in the News – Front Page of West Portal Monthly (Feb 2017)

SCREAAM is mentioned this month on the front page jet noise article of the local paper for the West Portal neighborhood of San Francisco.   Note:  They do not have an online version of the story, so no link available.  See attached images.

Next SCREAAM Meeting Scheduled for 2/16

The will be an upcoming meeting of SCREAAM on 2/16 at 6:30pm. If you are interested in working with fellow community members to do something about the jet noise in San Francisco please come join us to plan what actions we can take. If you have any questions please contact us via our Contact Page.

Date: Thursday 2/16/17

Time: 6:30PM-8:30PM

Location: Ingleside Public Library meeting room

1298 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA 94112

The Airplane Impacts Mitigation (AIM) Act of 2017 introduced

BOSTON, MASS – This week, Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-Boston), joined by members of the bipartisan Quiet Skies Caucus, introduced H.R. 598, the Airplane Impacts Mitigation (AIM) Act of 2017.

In a press release from congressman Lynch, congresswoman Anna Eshoo who represents the South Bay comments:

New flight paths implemented under the FAA’s NextGen program have generated alarming and untenable increases in noise impacts across my entire Congressional District. I consistently hear from constituents who are impacted daily and are concerned about air pollution and other negative health impacts of airplane overflights.  This legislation goes to the heart of this issue, ensuring there will be scientific data developed and measured to assess the NextGen program and its effect on my constituents.

The complete press release is  available here.

SFO Roundtable Meeting Feb 1st

The next SFO Roundtable meeting is next week on Wednesday evening.  If you are able to go please make a comment about your concerns about jet noise.

Date: Wednesday Feb 1, 2017
Time: 7:00pm
Location: David Chetcuti Community Room – Millbrae City Hall
450 Popular Avenue – Millbrae, CA 94030

A meeting packet and agenda are available in pdf here.

An amazing jet noise complaint story from Washington DC area…

Here is an interesting jet noise complaint post from the other side of the country. There certainly are similarities with what is going on in some parts of San Francisco these days… and with how some residents feel about our jet noise situation.
https://theoutline.com/post/834/we-found-the-dc-resident-who-filed-thousands-of-the-city-s-noise-complaints