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LET’S END THE AERIAL ASSAULT!
Updates
RESIDENTS’ CALL TO ACTION
May 16, 2022
Please participate in the Press Conference (after oral argument) in SAVE OUR SKIES LA v. FAA. Know that each resident represents many, many others. Your presence is important.
WHEN: May 20, 2021 10:30 am
WHERE: THE RICHARD H. CHAMBERS COURTHOUSE — SIDEWALK
125 SOUTH GRAND AVENUE
PASADENA, CA 91105
WHY: The FAA's health-jeopardizing procedures were not lawfully instituted—they were imposed by the FAA without following process required by federal environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act. Those requirements are there for a reason – to prevent precisely the kind of harm created by the flight procedures we have challenged.
Having had our voices ignored by the FAA, we banded together to form SAVE OUR SKIES LA to have our voice heard by the courts. We sued the FAA, asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the faulty process that led the FAA to radically change departure flight patterns out of BUR and VNY. The argument in that case will be heard today, and we are here to bear witness to the importance of the issue and the harm the unauthorized actions of the FAA are causing.
Watch the livestream of our oral argument here
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FAA's Responsive Brief Filed
January 10, 2022
The US Department of Justice, counsel for the FAA, has requested two extensions on the filing deadline for the FAA’s responsive brief. SOSLA did not oppose these requests. Their responsive brief was filed January 10, 2022. SOSLA reply brief is due end of February. Once briefing is concluded, the Court will set a date for oral argument, now forecasted for May of this year.
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Five “Friend Of the Court” Letters Filed
December 17, 2021
After the resident’s brief was filed, SOSLA heard from homeowners associations (HOAs) and non-profit organizations in the impacted area interested to express their support for the lawsuit. Five HOAs and non-profits requested and received consent from the FAA to file amicus joinder letters. Read the five letters here.
These letters further flesh out the facts of environmental harms due to the FAA’s implementation of new kinds of low, assaultive flight procedures. The letters corroborate the facts and timeline of the case as laid out in the SOSLA opening brief, including:
Cumulative effects from the new virtual runways emanating from at least two airports — BUR and VNY — using the same new airspace for routing departures and arrivals;
The falling of jet debris in the newly impacted area;
The presence of toxic black plane soot in the newly impacted area and the unexamined effects on plants and wildlife in parks and protected open spaces; and
The fact that the FAA made the changes without public notice, consultation with local park and other officials or any environmental analysis.
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Residents’ Opening Brief Filed
September 9, 2021
Ninth Circuit Court
SAVE OUR SKIES LA (SOSLA) filed its opening brief presenting to the Court the facts and legal argument that the FAA violated federal environmental laws by implementing new kinds of low flight procedures at Burbank and Van Nuys airports. The new kinds of flight procedures not only result in aircraft flying at much lower altitudes than ever before, but also in aircraft ascending more gradually than before.
From these changes arose new flight patterns that are assaultive in character, because they are so low. Additionally, the new flight procedures shorten the time and space needed between departures that lead to the onslaught or blitzkrieg that residents report experiencing in their homes, parks, and protected open spaces especially in the mornings and late afternoons when jet traffic from both airports is frequent.
Central to the SOSLA brief are the sworn declarations of residents throughout the newly impacted areas — detailing health conditions, sleep disturbances, and their inability to reside peacefully in their homes and to enjoy the outdoors. The brief includes the sworn declaration of the Mountain Recreation Conservation Authority’s Chief Ecologist Paul Edelman who opined,
“The current impacts of these new FAA RNAV flight procedures on the subject eastern Santa Monica Mountain parklands and protected open spaces are of such a degree and nature that they amount to a constructive taking of these lands in that they substantially impair the intended uses of these properties.”
The SOSLA brief also includes documentation of serious heavy metal and other cancer-causing pollutants being found on plants from the new frequent, low flying aircraft in the Santa Monica Mountains. The brief summarized the study by UCLA Environmental Health Sciences Professor and Ultrafine Particles Researcher Dr. Yifang Zhu who concluded, "I was 100% certain that the substance showing on the leaves I collected was particulate emissions from planes.”
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JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST INCREASED DENSITY & LOW FLYING AIR TRAFFIC FROM BURBANK & VAN NUYS AIRPORTS
With NextGen, the FAA illegally created virtual runways in the sky, paving the way for unchecked future growth at these two airports. In implementing its NextGen computerized navigation program without environmental analysis or public input, the FAA increased air traffic density in skies from the 101 Fwy to Sunset Blvd — with assaultive noise & harmful air pollution. Part 2 of this scheme is airport expansion, which is happening right now unless we come together to stop it.
Donate to Your Legal Fund Today
Protecting our homes, our community & the environment costs money. We’ve hired lawyers to help us.
The FAA failed to follow process required by federal environmental laws prior to enacting new computer-driven flight procedures. We’re ready to sue them to bring it to the attention of our federal judiciary.
Together, we can fight this! (Your donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE.)
HOW YOU CAN HELP RIGHT NOW:
SIGN THE PETITION
& TELL CITY OF LA
Air traffic growth at Van Nuys and Burbank needs to be held in check
The writing is on the wall: Unchecked growth — aided by the FAA’s implementation of NextGen computer navigation — is breaching airport promises to be good neighbors to surrounding residential and commercial areas.
Additionally at VNY, allowing private charter jets to provide scheduled flights breaches a longstanding promise not to become a commercial airport.
NextGen Runways over LA Homes & Parks
This short video summarizes in a few minutes the issue and what your neighbors are experiencing on a daily basis.
Please watch and get involved — Thank you!
We’re Fighting Back!
A coalition of LA residents has come together under the banner SAVE OUR SKIES LA (www.sosla.org) to FIGHT for our homes, parks, and the environment by suing the FAA in federal court.