Someone living near Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) is really ticked off about the increased noise generated by new flight patterns at that close-in airport.
So ticked off that during 2015 that person filed 6,500 of the 8,670 noise complaints about DCA received by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority — an average of 18 complaints a day over the course of the year, according to the Washington Post.
“It wasn’t me,” Ed Solomon, president of the D.C. Fair Skies Coalition, told NBC News.
But the fact that flights are leaving earlier and landing later in the day than was historically allowed, and that some are now flying at lower altitudes, “is shaking folks homes and impacting the quality of life severely in some neighborhoods,” Solomon said.
No word yet from airport authorities on just who that super-irritated person is, but even without that person’s constant filing, complaints associated with aircraft noise at DCA have been rising.
In 2014, the Noise Information Office at DCA received 1,286 noise complaints from 149 individuals, with one person filing 577, or 45 percent, of the complaints.
“The growing demand for personal and business travel during the early morning and late night hours has prompted additional flights during the nighttime hour, which been noticed by nearby communities,” the DCA Noise Information Office noted in it 2014 report.
In 2015, DCA airport received 2170 noise complaints above and beyond the 6,500 filed by one person.
DCA isn’t the only airport experiencing increased noise complaints.
Reports are up at busy airports around the country, due in part to the Federal Aviation Administration’s new and more efficient “NextGen” air traffic management system, which offers a variety of environmental, scheduling and cost-savings benefits while increasing the number of takeoffs and landings — and potential noise — at many airports.