Residents angered by airplane noise

About 40 residents —many from North Woodmere— attended the monthly Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) meeting on Monday in Hempstead and to expressed their concern over an uptick in airplane noise in their community.
The noise, they said, is disruptive and occurs about every 90 seconds, and mostly at night and first thing in the morning. They have also noticed the increase in noise over the past couple of months. Currently a noise study known as Part 150 is being conducted throughout communities surrounding the John F. Kennedy Airport.
Jim Peters, the regional spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said that even with the runway closures and construction projects currently going on, there has been no real difference in flight patterns and noise levels. “We’re not doing anything differently today than we’ve ever done before,” he said.
The current construction involves widening and lengthening the runway 4L/22R, which will accommodate larger aircraft and allow for fewer flight delays, according to John Selden, the deputy general manager for JFK Airport.
Daniel Segall, a North Woodmere resident who works from home, said he noticed on April 24 how his house shook from the plane noise. “At 7:30 at night, as I was standing right over on my street corner, I could see the planes landing right on 22R,” he said. “They were landing, spaced about 90 seconds apart, and I noticed this lasted for a good hour.” He said his neighbor was able to track the wind speeds at 7 miles per hour with a weather station, and wanted to know why couldn’t someone redirect the planes to land on a different runway in an opposite direction.
Peters told Segall that he would find out what happened on that date and let him know why the planes were flying in such a way. Peters also said that he would work with TVASNAC, looking into the matter and responding personally to each resident interested in finding out why.