Local News
After years of suffering the consequences of the fighter jets flying overhead, residents say enough is enough.
A Lockheed Martin F-35 of the U.S. Air Force performs at the “Airpower 24” air show in Zeltweg, Austria, on Sept. 6, 2024. ERWIN SCHERIAU/APA/AFP via Getty Images
After years of being under the flight paths of F-35 fighter jets, two Vermont communities are saying enough is enough and asking their local leaders to plead with the National Guard to make changes.
Residents have voiced that the F-35s disrupt their lives every time they fly overhead, since the Vermont Air National Guard began using the aircraft at Burlington International Airport in 2019.
According to testimony at public hearings, they have to go indoors, shut windows, and even stop classes at nearby schools as it is too loud to teach over the noise.
Locals have also pointed to research from the World Health Organization that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the population, with children suffering disproportionality.
Citizens in Burlington put together a resolution tasking local leaders to work with Vermont’s congressional delegation to mitigate the harmful effects of the F-35s and ask the National Guard to change its mission.
At an August. 12 meeting, the City Council passed the resolution 11-1.
More recently, on Sept. 3, neighboring Winooski introduced a similar resolution, which the City Council passed unanimously.
“It’s already a burden to our economy but especially to the residents of our community that are just left in limbo waiting for the sound impact to be lessened and decreased,” Winooski City Councilor Bryn Oakleaf said at the meeting. “(Many don’t have) the ability to do much except to move if they have the luxury of making that decision for themselves and their families.”
How did we get here?
According to the history of the 158th Fighter Wing, the Vermont Air National Guard was established nearly a century ago. After over three decades of flying operations with F-16s, the guard transitioned to the F-35 Lightning II in 2019.
The Lockheed Martin website says that F-35s are single-seat stealth aircrafts designed for strike or attack missions.
According to a 2012 U.S. Air Force impact report, the F-35’s maximum sound level on takeoff is estimated to be 115 decibels at 1,000 feet above the ground, 21 decibels louder than the maximum sound for the F-16.
The Air Force reported that close to 7,000 people in about 3,000 households in the communities of Winooski, South Burlington, Williston, Burlington, and Colchester lived within the 65 decibels produced by the F-35s, which the federal government has deemed “not suitable for residential use.”
In 2012, Winooski residents raised concerns about the new aircraft’s potential impacts during the environmental review process, asking to remove Burlington International Airport from consideration.
In 2015, voters requested a legal complaint against the Air Force, citing noise, economic, environmental, and quality of life concerns. The lawsuit was denied, and the city chose not to appeal.
In 2018, the Winooski City Council signed a resolution, again asking the secretary of the Air Force to put the planes elsewhere.
But, the efforts went nowhere, as the Air Force moved forward with bringing the F-35s to the airport.
Sound mitigation efforts
In response, the Burlington International Airport, with help from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), created a residential sound insulation program.
The project involves updating about 2,500 housing units near the airport, including those in Winooski and Burlington, to get new insulation, doors, and windows.
However, the updates are expected to take years to complete, and as one resident has pointed out, they don’t stop the noise while outdoors.
Mission change
As outlined in the Burlington resolution, residents are asking the Air Force to replace the F-35 mission with one that causes “no harmful noise” and “no substantively adverse economic impact to the airport or community,” and one that is “compatible with residential neighborhoods.”
The residents are asking the guard to consider a military transport mission instead, which would increase the number of jobs and align more closely with the beliefs of the local communities, they say. Transport aircraft require more people, and a Medevac mission needs five times more crew.
As a military pilot’s wife said at the Burlington public hearing, “Nothing has done more to harm the reputation of the guard than the (placement) of this airplane,” she said. “The reputation has gone downhill since the F-35s have arrived.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 03:13:00
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