FAA hears LIers' jet noise complaints

The Federal Aviation Administration rarely sanctions airline pilots who fly over Long Island below altitude guidelines, an agency official said last night at a lightly attended meeting about jet noise.

Robert Jaffe, a flight standards supervisor, said pilots have the authority to breach altitude guidelines only for safety reasons.

Jaffe, a former commercial airline pilot who frequently flew into Kennedy Airport, said instances of the agency trying to yank a pilot's license over an altitude guideline violation are rare.

"It's extremely low," Jaffe told members of the Town-Village Noise Abatement Committee, which held its monthly meeting in Lawrence.

Jaffee said complaints from the public of low flying aircraft often lack the detail needed to sufficiently investigate them.

"It's very difficult to tell altitude from the ground," he said.

Board members have engaged in a war of words with FAA officials over mostly Nassau County residents' complaints about jet noise. Both the FAA and the Port Authority, which operates Kennedy, declined an invitation to the last meeting. Also last month, a proposed three-way agreement between the anti-noise committee, the FAA and the Port Authority fell apart.

Some residents say noise from low-flying planes has grown worse since last fall.

Jaffe said FAA regulations call for pilots flying over populated areas to maintain 1,000 feet altitude, with safety exceptions.

That didn't sit well with board member Larry Quinn.

"How low is too low? Do they have to trim the top of my trees?" said Quinn, of Garden City.

Last month, the noise committee moved its meeting to the Garden City Public Library to accommodate a crowd of more than 100 people.

Monday night, just 20 people came to the session.