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Two local congressmen complained today that new flight-departure routes at the Philadelphia International Airport do not comply with a noise-mitigation program the city agreed to in 2003.
They want Philadelphia to come up with a new plan to cut noise produced by the jets as they climb away from the airport.
The complaint comes after the Federal Aviation Administration in December allowed pilots to use new departure routes when 10 or more planes are backed up waiting for takeoff. The FAA says the new routes, which take planes over Delaware and Gloucester Counties, will help ease congestion and delays at the airport, and the agency aims to make them permanent.
But U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, (D., Pa.) and U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, (D., N.J.) said the airport - owned by the city - was required to study how noise patterns from the jets would change under the new flight patterns, before pilots started using the new paths.
"Prior to any new noise being placed upon the area around the airport, abatement procedures have to be pursued," Sestak said during a conference call early this evening.
Douglas Oliver, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said the mayor could not respond to the issue until he reviewed it with airport officials.
Phyllis VanIstendal, a spokeswoman for the airport, said she was not familiar with the noise-abatement issues raised by Sestak and Andrews and could not immediately comment.
Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA, declined to comment because the issue had been raised specifically with the mayor.
Sestak and Andrews have been vocal opponents of the FAA plans to send more planes over their districts. Delaware County, along with about a dozen cities, counties and groups in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, has filed an appeal to the FAA's plan. The communities affected by the new routes have asked that use of the routes be halted until their appeals are heard.
Sestak and Andrews said today that they would consider litigation if the airport does not adhere to the noise-compatibility program that they claim the city is bound by.
"This is another rail on the tracks that we're trying to lay down," Sestak said.
Contact staff writer Joelle Farrell at 610-627-0352 or jfarrell@phillynews.com.
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