FAA Orders Training to Cut Noise From National Airport

Federal aviation officials, responding to complaints from Virginia residents, have ordered that Washington air traffic controllers receive quarterly "refresher training" in procedures to control noise from flights in and out of Reagan National Airport.

Flights have drifted to the Virginia side of the Potomac River because controllers and pilots want to avoid the restricted airspace in Maryland and the District, officials said. This has led to complaints about increased noise in Northern Virginia neighborhoods, especially in McLean.

The Federal Aviation Administration also said control tower managers and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials met last week with chief pilots for the carriers that serve National to stress the importance of flying over the Potomac River to minimize noise in Northern Virginia.

The agency's actions, outlined in a recent letter from FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey to Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), came in response to a study of airport noise by the McLean Citizens Association. The group's analysis of data from sound monitoring stations and flight tracking records showed that air traffic noise has steadily increased in some areas since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The study, conducted by association members with substantial aviation experience, found that noise from flights has increased an average of 3.6 decibels in eastern McLean and 2.4 decibels in Great Falls, raising noise levels in both locations to about 55 decibels. The FAA sets 65 decibels as the acceptable maximum for aircraft noise.

The McLean association said it was clear that controllers and pilots were ignoring guidelines that call for outbound flights to avoid residential neighborhoods by following the Potomac River to the American Legion Bridge before turning off. Many descending flights pass over McLean between the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Georgetown Pike (Route 193) instead of using the river route, the association said.

At a March 7 meeting convened by Wolf, federal officials conceded that noise control protocols had grown lax.

"The FAA acknowledged that there is a noise problem, and they kind of indicated that their controllers are not up to speed on compliance," said Paul Wieland, a member of the McLean Citizens Association's environmental committee and a retired Air Force officer who flew 136 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

Blakey's letter to Wolf, dated March 19, does not specifically acknowledge any lack of compliance with the rules. But according to congressional staff, when the subject came up at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing last week, she told Wolf that controllers and pilots were not adhering to the river route.

An agency spokesman said officials with Blakey at the hearing do not recall such a statement.

Blakey said in the letter that refresher training had been completed for controllers and supervisors at Potomac TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control), which manages traffic at National, Dulles International, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall and Richmond airports. Training for air traffic personnel at National is scheduled to be finished by April 13.

"The refresher training will be accomplished quarterly," she wrote.

Dan Scandling, a Wolf spokesman, said that the congressman is happy with the FAA's response but that the situation will have to be carefully monitored. Wolf "realizes that it is going to be continual problem," Scandling said.

Wieland said agency officials, who had arranged for McLean residents to tour the TRACON facility in Vint Hill and the National control tower, had acted in good faith.

"We couldn't have been more pleased with FAA and the airports authority," he said. "They were extremely cooperative. I think they went above and beyond."