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Shhh...It's Not Happening: House Rejects Amendment to Put Burbank and Van Nuys Airports on Nighttime Curfew
BUR at Night (Photo by paTTrick via Flickr)
If you live within earshot of the flight paths for Burbank's Bob Hope Airport or the Van Nuys Airport, you aren't going to find any sound relief in this news. The House of Representatives has rejected a proposed legislative amendment that would have imposed nighttime curfews on flights in and out of those two airports, according to the Daily News.The effort to curb the nightly noise has been championed by Pasadena's Rep. Adam Schiff, who "tried to get the amendment attached to Federal Aviation Administration legislation, but was soundly rebuffed." The goal was to prohibit flights from taking off or landing between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Trying to keep things quiet at the Bob Hope Airport overnight is an ongoing battle. Though commercial aircraft are covered under a voluntary curfew, other aircraft are not, and those continue to take off and land in the wee hours.
A 1999 LA Times article about Burbank's dissatisfaction with the nighttime noise levels explains that BUR "officials said under noise rules adopted by the Burbank Airport Authority in 1981, newer, or Stage 3, private jets flying in and out of Burbank at night are not covered by the voluntary curfew." That's great and all, except those are the flights that are still coming in for their noisy post-10p.m. landings.
In 2009, the FAA said such a curfew would be unreasonable, citing the struggling economy and the harm curtailing those mostly cargo and delivery flights would do for commerce. However, a 2002 study said that a curfew would actually have more benefits than do harm.
Schiff says he promises to continue to fight to get a curfew in place.
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