Airport says there's no problem after neighbors complain about house-shaking noise

EAST POINT, Ga. — The general manager for Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International airport said planes are not flying off their approved path and over an East Point neighborhood, near Briarwood Boulevard.

"No, we have the documentation from the day you were out there," General Manager Louis Miller told Channel 2's Rachel Stockman.

Stockman showed Miller video of planes flying near Briarwood Boulevard. Residents say in recent months, the planes have been flying too low, and are too loud.

"In the middle of the night, your house is shaking, you don't know if it's an earthquake or what, and when you come to, you realize it is an airplane flying over your neighborhood," neighbor Nanette Saucier told Stockman.

Saucier, who lives on Briarwood Boulevard, is part of a group of residents, who have been trying to petition the Federal Aviation Administration and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to re-examine their flight path.

The residents believe the planes are not flying on their approved path.

But, the airport manager explained to Stockman that the video of the planes was shot from an angle, and the planes traveled on their approved path.

Miller showed Stockman radar from the day Channel 2 Action News was on site. He said the radar showed only one plane straying from the path over the neighborhood.

Miller said the radar showed the majority of the airplanes flying south of the Briarwood Boulevard homes.

"Nothing has changed in the last five years in that area," explained Miller.

"When we call and make complaints about the noise, we are being told by the officials that the airport that they aren't flying over here," Saucier Said.

"There is not really anything we can do right now because we have to operate under federal law," Miller said.

The homes are not eligible for noise mitigation, unless they fall within certain noise contours of the airport.

Miller said the Briarwood Boulevard neighborhood does not qualify. Noise mitigation typically costs the airport between $20,000 - and $30,000 per home.

Neighbor Art Phillips is a former air traffic controller from the Army. He showed Stockman how he's been documenting the problem with his noise monitor and taking detailed notes.

"It impacts our quality of life," Phillips said.

"Some East Point residents have repeatedly stated that aircraft are flying farther north than they should be. Department of Aviation staff review the actual path the aircraft flew and, with the exception of a few rare instances, the residents' aircraft observations do not match with the actual flight path shown on radar, with typically the actual path being much farther south than where the residents report seeing the aircraft," Hartsfield-Jackson spokesperson Myrna White sent Stockman in an email.

"People are moving, people that have lived here 30," Saucier said.

The neighbors want to sit down with officials and talk about it, because they believe their problems are continuing to be ignored by airport officials.

Airport officials contend that nothing has changing to make aircraft any louder, but say some aircraft types may be louder due to their design.

WSBTV