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The Renton Airport Advisory Committee discusses the increase of nighttime jet traffic over Mercer Island at the Committee’s September 9 meeting.
The Renton Airport Advisory Committee discussed intensifying noise concerns at their third-quarter September 9 meeting, and the link to the zoom recording of the meeting was just made available. The video can be watched here.
The noise discussion starts at 43 minutes, first with some questions by Jeff Dineen (representing South Renton and RAAC vice-chair) regarding how pilots get trained on noise abatement procedures, followed by an intense discussion of overnight jet traffic over Mercer Island. Tom Imrich (representing Mercer Island and a highly-experienced commercial jet pilot) makes the case that too many of the takeoffs are occuring at just a few-hundred feet above Mercer Island’s tree-tops at all hours of the night, and that a higher take-off profile or an east-channel (over-water) departure route should be invoked to spare Mercer Island’s neighborhoods from the noise and safety risks of the low-flying jet traffic.
The RAAC discussion covers some of the concerns that precipitated a firm letter from Mercer Island’s Mayor to the Renton Airport Director in September.
The video and draft meeting minutes were made available in conjunction with the announcement for the fourth quarter RAAC meeting, to be held on November 18th at 5:00 PM. I’ve attached the agenda below. (Meetings of the RAAC are open to the public, although public comment is typically not taken at the meetings.)
In several previous blog entries I’ve expressed concern that a new focus by Renton Airport leadership on inviting jet centers into Renton Airport, diplacing historic small-parts manufacturers and piston-aircraft users, would lead to increasing conflicts of this type. All my earlier blog posts related to Renton Airport and the RAAC can be found here, or by clicking “Airport” in the Category sidebar.
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