East Boston’s environmental youth group is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reinstate Head to Head Operations at Logan International Airport during nighttime operations.
NOAH’s Community Building and Environment Department and their Youth Crew have released a major public interest study this week. The study focuses on the impacts of late night airplane noise on Eastie and Chelsea residents living in close proximity to runway paths.
Head to Head Operation is when air traffic controllers send a departing flight over the water on take off while arriving flights are landed on the same runway from the opposite direction. This method had been used for years at Logan to cut down operational noise during the nighttime hours because landings tend to be a lot quieter than takeoffs.
The Youth Crew has found a new onslaught of night time airplane flights over the community. These flights, the Youth Crew has found, have created a new and serious public health threat–sleep fragmentation.
“We went out into the community and talked to 445 people about the late night noise”, said Billy Avalos, a 16 year old sophomore and NOAH’s