May 2020 MCQSC Update: Skies Really Are Quieter…For Now

Dear Members of the Montgomery County Quiet Skies Coalition,

We hope this email finds you and your family well.

Like you, we are hoping the COVID-19 crisis subsides soon and that we can get back to a (new) normal way of life. We too want to get back to work, enjoy in-person relationships and plan for the future.

While no one would ever wish for a health pandemic, there are consequences worth contemplating. The polluted skies over many of America’s large cities have cleared and animals have been observed to be thriving. Our environment has returned to a more natural state; this is also true for the people who live, study and work below channelized flight paths across our nation.

Jet air pollution and noise has decreased dramatically over the past month from U.S. commercial airports, including from Reagan National Airport, which reported a 17.9 percent decrease in flights during March 2020 compared to March 2019. The decrease in the number of flights during April 2020 is expected to be even more dramatic. As a result, our Montgomery County neighborhoods have returned to their previous state: healthier and more livable.

Many of us who bought our homes before 2015 are reminded about the extent to which we’ve been robbed. We are again experiencing what it used to feel like to live in relative peace. We no longer have 90,000-lb. jet aircraft thundering towards our homes every three minutes. Our anxious minds have stopped instinctively firing off stress responses to flee or fight. Our bodies no longer vibrate. We can breathe again. We can hear our breath again. We can inhabit our own minds in peace. We reflect. We take note of this moment in time, and yes, we vow to fight on against the inhumane and unjust concentration of the totality of flights for the entire region over our communities - flights which, without sustained work, will return again.

 Janelle, Anne and Gretchen