By Carol Wilson, Capistrano Beach
Years ago South Orange County fought hard and long to keep El Toro from turning into a commercial airport, primarily to keep noise levels down and preserve the quality of life in South Orange County. In the past few months, I have noticed the loud noises of commercial aircraft flying over my house.
The morning of Nov. 4, for example, shortly after 7 a.m., there were a number of aircraft flying over my home, one after the other, as the early morning flights departed John Wayne Airport. Also very late at night I hear commercial aircraft flying over after 11 p.m. and even after midnight.
Most local citizens probably did not catch the article in the OC Register in July which stated the FAA was switching to “satellite controls” to better move more aircraft through our airspace. Although whatever changes they are making is not supposed to take effect until January of next year, this recent uptick of noisy airplanes over our peaceful community has me wondering if they may be “testing” their new paths now.
According to the newspaper article, this will mean 50 departures a day from John Wayne Airport, 37 arrivals and 22 approaches.
Due to our location, I believe we are feeling the impact of departures as arrivals come in from the inland versus ocean direction.
If you have noticed or been impacted by commercial aircraft noise lately or have concerns about 50 aircraft flying over your home every day, please contact the FAA at 202.267.3521 or email 9-awa-noiseombudsman@faa.gov.
Our community banded together to prevent this years ago and it sounds like it is time to gather together again and let the FAA know it is not OK to use Dana Point/San Clemente as their departure flight path.
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