May 2024 MCQSC Update and Important Action Item re. additional slots at DCA
Please Call Senator Van Hollen NOW
In the last week, the Senate released its version of the FAA Reauthorization.
The Senate version would add 5 more slots at DCA.
This translates to 10 more long-haul airplanes overhead every day: 1 arrival and 1 departure for each new slot.
PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL SENATOR VAN HOLLEN NOW.
(202) 224-4654 or email him using this online form: https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/contact/email
THANK SENATOR VAN HOLLEN FOR KEEPING UP THIS FIGHT.
Remind him that the NOISE of these additional flights is a public health hazard, in addition to the safety and congestion issues (which are virtually all that is being discussed in the news).
Points you may wish to make (but put it in your own words!):
The constant, repetitive, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour noise of low-altitude aircraft is doing great harm to people who live under the flight paths.
This type of concentrated, loud, repetitive noise is very different from listening to an occasional aircraft. It is torture.
More aircraft will make it worse, and the long-haul flights are likely to be at the most damaging times of day (early in the morning and late at night).
The FAA claims far less people are exposed to aircraft noise than in the past. The reason for that is because the same people are being exposed over and over again. In the words of the FAA, "there will be winners and losers." A losing community lives under a noise corridor – they are called “overflight communities”. That's us.
The FAA considers aircraft noise an “annoyance” – instead, excessive and repetitive aircraft noise is a national public health problem.
Thank Senator Van Hollen for protecting our health by fighting against the addition of any additional slots at DCA.
P.S. We found only one news article in the last week that mentions the noise issue: https://simpleflying.com/faa-bill-flights-longer-1250-miles-reagan-national-airport/ . "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport's perimeter rule was first introduced in January 1966. The idea was that longer flights would operate from Washington Dulles International Airport while smaller, lighter aircraft would fly out of DCA, reducing noise pollution for residents."
