It’s just plane frustrating.
Northeast Queens residents saw 47% more departing planes from LaGuardia Airport flying over their heads between 2002 and 2014, an average increase of 2,779 flights a year, according to flight data from a group called Queens Quiet Skies.
And in nearby Jackson Heights, residents there saw a 78% increase in departing planes zooming overhead since 2008, mostly on weekends, according to the group.
Queens Quiet Skies compiled the data from the Port Authority’s runway data for LaGuardia Airport.
“We all felt we were getting more airplane noise over this community,” said State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens). “Now the records show it.”
Brian Will of Queens Quiet Skies pinned the plane blame on the Federal Aviation Administration.
“They say this is because of wind and weather,” he said. “No, this is an operational change.”
That shift meant more than 93,000 departures over northeast Queens in 2014, compared to more than 57,000 in 2002.
Will said that airplanes shifted their departures to the runway that sends them over Northeast Queens, citing a 14% drop in departures from two other LaGuardia Airport runways.
Port Authority spokeswoman Cheryl Ann Albiez said in a statement that the FAA in 2012 hiked up the number of departures on the runway that takes planes over Northern Queens neighborhoods.
For Jackson Heights, the hike in planes flying overhead was due to a runway construction project that is coming to an end this year, according to the Port Authority.
Still, Albeiz said noise from aircraft in areas around the airport “have not changed significantly since 2008.”
Avella said that he wants a working group to hash out flight paths that don’t overburden any one neighborhood. He also pushed for a working group to come up with ways to fight the noise pollution around the metropolitan area.
“We recognize that the airports are huge economic engines, especially for the borough of Queens, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a balance,” Avella said. “Let’s balance the need and the impact over everybody, so that one neighborhood like Northeast Queens or Jackson Heights doesn’t get it all.”
An FAA spokesman declined to comment because the agency couldn’t verify the data’s accuracy or how the group compiled it.
