'Absolutely disheartening': FAA rejects nighttime O'Hare runway rotation to spread out jet noise
Citing safety, the Federal Aviation Administration has turned down an overnight runway rotation plan - years in the making - intended to evenly distribute noise from O'Hare International Airport airplanes.
The FAA "is not able to approve the air traffic feasibility of the proposal," Acting Regional Manager Joseph Miniace wrote the Chicago Department of Aviation on May 3.
"However, the CDA is encouraged to submit a revised proposal."
The decision surprised some members of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, which had been working since 2016 on the project with the city. The revised Fly Quiet program was submitted to the FAA in December.
"It's absolutely disheartening," Bensenville Village Manager Evan Summers said Monday. "The only thing I know right now is there's going to be a big delay. Nobody wants a safer airport than the communities around the airport."
Chicago Department of Aviation Communications Director Kevin Bargnes said the city "remains dedicated to continuing this work, and CDA leadership is eager to collaborate with our federal partners as a part of this ongoing federal review process."
The plan offered a 12-week rotation between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. using four parallel and two diagonal runways.
The FAA raised concerns about certain headings, or angles, proposed for departing aircraft that were included to offer more options for dispersing jet noise.
"FAA believes that the proposed schedule would be feasible," Miniace wrote. But "for the proposed fixed headings associated with each runway configuration, the FAA does not find that they would be feasible."
Among their concerns was maintaining safe separations between aircraft, including cases when there's a missed approach by a plane that's arriving.
Some headings in the plan "do not allow for the required safety conditions to be met," and although they could taken into account by air traffic controllers, they could not be set as requirements, the agency said.
Summers, chairman of the noise commission's Technical Committee, said Bensenville residents are overwhelmed with nighttime jet noise.
The FAA "had employees at nearly all of the Fly Quiet Committee meetings, and for them to only now raise this concern is a disservice to my residents and a disrespect to the entire ... process," he said.
Schaumburg Transportation Director and noise commission Vice Chairwoman Karyn Robles said the group is seeking clarification from the FAA. "The ONCC remains committed to pursuing a new Fly Quiet program that will balance overnight noise for the communities surrounding O'Hare."
The rotation was approved by a majority of noise commission members last summer. The process was prolonged because of the technical complexities involving flights at the nation's second-busiest airport and because organizers strove to come up with a consensus amenable to dozens of communities.
Chicago Department of Aviation Commissioner Jamie L. Rhee in the meantime has asked the FAA to offer more specifics about problems with the headings.
"I am eager to expedite the resolution of these concerns," she said in a letter obtained by the Daily Herald.