Frustrated Residents Turn Out for TVASNAC Meeting

The 13 villages that make up the Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) do not appear, on the surface, to be close to freedom from what many have said is excessive aircraft noise in the area.

If the packed-to-capacity committee meeting Monday in Lawrence is any indication, however, residents, the press and local government have taken a strong interest in the cause.

Runway 22L into JFK, which flies over Garden City, has seen an increase in traffic from 14.5 percent in 2004 to 29.2 percent in 2011, based on official data.

“We did not buy houses underneath runway approaches,” said Laurence Quinn, village trustee and chair of Garden City's Environmental Advisory Board (EAB). “The traditional pattern had had no flights coming over at night … what constitutes a change in air traffic patterns that requires an environmental study, and then we get our relief?”

Aviation officials available for questioning included David Siewert, air traffic manager at JFK's Air Traffic Control Tower; Paul Laude, program specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Ralph Tamburro and Jim Hayden, of the FAA and the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON); Ralph Tragale, assistant director of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey; Ed Knosel, manager of environmental programs at the Port Authority; and William Huisman of the Aviation Development Council.

Assemblyman Tom McKevitt, R-East Meadow, and State Sen. Jack Martins, R, Mineola, were also present but did not speak.

Area residents have consistently pushed the FAA to (1) distinguish noise levels between the manual and instrument-guided landing approach, (2) enforce aircraft to maintain higher altitudes over villages and (3) punish pilots who break altitude regulations.

Lack of meaningful communication remains the primary problem between the various communities and air traffic officials. Local representatives will bring up a specific situation to air traffic officials, who have typically either questioned the credibility of the representative’s statistics, said that the question had already been fully answered elsewhere, said that a specific instance was impossible to account for without every piece of information, or that safety was always the top priority over noise.

“Planes are too damn low, and it’s not funny, because safety is involved,” said Ray Gaudio, trustee for East Williston. “We need relief.”

Despite the increasingly heated nature of the meeting, TVASNAC executive director Kendall Lampkin was quick to try to diffuse tension.

“We’re not going to allow this meeting to degenerate into finger-pointing,” he said.

Zachary Campbell, a local commercial pilot, defended air traffic officials and pilots.

“We bought homes, we’ve lived here, we know there’s airports here,” he said. “As the aviation industry grows, we all have to understand that we all want to travel places, so there’s going to be more air traffic. So, coming into the airport, we’ve got to expect that there’s more noise coming in … we are held to altitude standards, and we are penalized if we do not hold those altitude standards.”

Garden City resident Gina Fornasar, a constant presence at EAB meetings, had her daughter, Julia, speak to how aircraft noise has affected her life.

“I wake up early at night because the noise from the airplanes comes so low … and when I get to school I fall asleep at my desk,” Julia said.