No, It's not Boeing Field. Mystery solved.

Data from Boeing Field (King County International Airport) received today show that there are no super-noisy night-time flights in or out of that facility.  

In our posts on 13 & 14 April, we reported that at Sea-Tac Airport there is a consistent pattern of very noisy aircraft, operated by FedEx, arriving & departing in the time frame, midnight to 6 a.m.   The data covered the period 15 March through 5 April, which we believe is reasonably representative.   The "guilty" aircraft are DC-10s & MD-11s.  At our request, Boeing Field supplied the data for night-time operations there for the same time frame.  Not a single DC-10 or MD-11.  No planes operating during that hours that would be considered particularly noisy.  

Renton has told us that they have essentially NO night-time operations, & absolutely no heavy noisy aircraft.

The mystery of the noisy flights is solved.  Case closed.  FedEx is responsible.

II-010-050 c (3)

Heathrow's third runway unlikely

Reprinted below is an article from The Telegraph (UK), published just before yesterday's general election in the United Kingdom.  The election returns are in; the Conservatives (Tories) & Liberal Democrats between them have enough seats in the new Parliament (306 & 57 respectively) to form a coalition government (even without the likely support of the minor Democratic Unionist Party, with 8 seats).   If the politicians stand by their campaign manifestos, Heathrow's proposed third runway is dead, & there is likely to be a strong push for very-high-speed rail in Great Britain.

* * * * *

General Election 2010:  Heathrow's third runway unlikely after vote

Heathrow's third runway is likely to be a casualty of the election, with two of the three parties opposed to the project.


By David Millward, Transport Editor
Published: 7:30AM BST 07 May 2010
Both the Lib Dems and the Tories have said they would scrap the plans for a third runway at Heathrow Photo: EPA

Both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives have said they would scrap the plans and even some senior Labour figures have misgivings about the scheme.

Assuming poll predictions are accurate there is unlikely to be a majority in favour of the runway in the new House of Commons.

Related Articles
General Election 2010 latest: live
Unhappy landings on the marsh
Judge: Heathrow Airport expansion 'untenable'
Third runway 'has fewer benefits than thought'
Heathrow third runway vote passed
Heathrow third runway would deliver £30bn benefits, says British Chambers of Commerce

Should Labour cling to power with Lib Dem support, the party could find that dropping Heathrow’s expansion will be part of the price it will have to pay even though it was a manifesto commitment.

With the exception of Heathrow, the gulf between the parties on transport is not particularly dramatic.

All three support the building of a high-speed rail line to the West Midlands and beyond.  ["Beyond" probably means Glasgow and Edinburgh] 

The Tories believe there should be a hub at Heathrow itself, while Labour has dismissed the idea arguing that it would add about £2 billion to the cost of the scheme. 
 

[balance of article, dealing with other UK transportation issues, not reprinted]

Forum on Port of Seattle

Reprinted from the website of the League of Women Voters of Greater Seattle:

May Forum: Port of Seattle

Thursday, May 6 at 7:30 PM

Seattle First Baptist Church
1111 Harvard Avenue
Seattle, WA

The Port of Seattle will be examined by the League of Women Voters of Greater Seattle in a forum that is free and open to the public.

Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large in a recent column interviewing local author Paul Loeb ("Soul of a Citizen"), asked him "where citizen involvement was missing locally." Loeb replied, "hardly anyone knows much about the Port."  How do we, the voters of King County, begin to understand the Port and its governing body, the Port Commission?  How does the Commission balance the public interest with the competitive international business role of the Port?  A distinguished panel of speakers will help us as citizens to do our part.  For more information contact the League office at 206-329-4848 or at info@seattlelwv.org.

For background information, read past port studies made by the League of Women Voters of Washington:

Washington State Public Port Districts (1989)

Washington Public Port Districts: Governance Issues (1992)

* * *

See also the on-line version of the May 2010 issues of "Seattle Voter",  the newsletter of the LWV, p.1, & pp. 21-50, for a current report by the League:  http://www.seattlelwv.org/sites/default/files/webvotermay'10.pdf