Weston Forum
Towns urge legislators to ground FAA's flight plan

Apr 21, 2008

Leaders of Fairfield County called on the Connecticut General Assembly to pass a resolution opposing the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Airspace Redesign Plan.

“As far as we are concerned, the FAA’s plan should never have left the ground in the first place,” said Rudy Marconi, chairman of the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning (AfSAP) and the first selectman of Ridgefield. “The FAA plan to send more jets flying low over Fairfield County is simply unfair to a large swath of our state. We urge the legislature to put a halt to the FAA’s careless disregard for the people living here.”

The FAA says it is implementing the new flight plan to ease air traffic congestion at New York area airports — a plan that will cause a significant spike in the number of planes flying low over Fairfield County, thereby increasing both pollution and noise, the alliance says.

“Anyone who has reviewed the FAA’s plan in any depth can easily see that it does not address the most important causes of flight delays in the greater New York area,” said Mr. Marconi. “The real problem is obvious. You don’t have to be an air traffic controller to understand that the delays are caused by over-scheduling of flights and grossly inadequate capacity at the airports themselves, especially a lack of sufficient runways capable of accommodating operations during foul weather.”

“The people of Connecticut should not be forced to inhale more jet fumes simply because the FAA refuses to take meaningful steps to address the capacity problem at greater New York airports,” he added.

Several Fairfield County towns have formally joined to create the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning to fight the FAA plan. The towns are Bridgewater, Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Milford, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Stamford, Weston, Westport, and Wilton in Connecticut, along with adjacent Pound Ridge in New York.

“I am very impressed with the way that our neighboring towns have worked together to fight this common problem,” said Woody Bliss, vice chairman of the AfSAP and Weston first selectman. He went on to say, “We face a major issue and we are all working very hard to get it resolved in a satisfactory manner. There are 11 court actions under way in four different states to stop this ill-advised plan.”

Committees of the Connecticut General Assembly already have approved the resolution calling on the FAA “to reconsider this ill-advised, flawed and poorly researched scheme and to hold additional hearings seeking the input of elected officials and concerned citizens.” Now it goes to the floor of the Senate and the House of Representatives for a final vote.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, on behalf of the state, has filed a court challenge of the FAA’s action. The alliance has filed a separate lawsuit against the FAA. Both say the FAA ignored its own guidelines when it adopted the new flight plan and did not take into consideration a wide range of issues affecting the residents of the region.

© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers