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.

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FedEx flies a uniquely noisy fleet

Yesterday we noted that most of the really noisy night-time flights at Sea-Tac (DC-10s & MD-11s) were flown by one carrier -- FedEx.

Further investigation reveals that, nation-wide, this carrier flies far many more DC-10s & MD-11s than anyone else.  No scheduled passenger carrier in the U.S. uses those old obsolescent birds.  UPS has a fleet of mostly newer, mostly quieter Boeing planes.  But FedEx goes out of its way to buy these aircraft from airlines that are phasing them out, & it has 85 DC-10s and 58 MD-11s in its fleet.  It would seem that most airports served by FedEx must be getting lots of night-time noise.

Time for a change at FedEx?

Source:  Wikipedia entries for DC-10 and MD-11, as of 1600 this afternoon.

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More about night-time noise at Sea-Tac

There are plenty of flights in & out of Sea-Tac during the hours midnight to 6 a.m., according to data furnished by the Airport’s noise office for the period 15 March – 5 April 2010.  Yesterday’s post pointed out that the worst offender is FedEx, flying very noisy, almost-obsolete aircraft.  Today, we report on the total number of midnight to 6 a.m. flights. 

SUMMARY

            On average, there are 24 NOISE-creating arrivals or departures every night from midnight to 6:00 a.m. at Sea-Tac Airport. 

PERIOD SURVEYED:  15 MARCH  TO 5 APRIL 2010 

Night flight events (Arrival or Departure) Midnight to 6:00 a.m. 

15 - 31 March                          415 flight events

1 – 5 April                                114 flight events

Total, 15  March -5 April         529 events

 

22 days, Average 24 events per night (midnight - 6 a.m.) 

Low 14 , High 33 , average 24 events

* * * 

The sample period seems to RCAA to be reasonably reflective of the whole year.  The data are not skewed by unusual demand (a major travel holiday or the Christmas rush), nor by events (such as unusual bad weather) that would cause big delays, missed / cancelled flights, or the like. 

It may also be noted that regularly-scheduled flights do not always arrive at just the scheduled minute.  Some are scheduled very close to midnight or 6 a.m.  Some of these occasionally arrive just within the midnight – 6 a.m. time frame, & sometimes just outside it.  This is largely responsible for the fluctuation between the nightly low of 14 operations & the nightly high of 33.  These flights at the very edges of the midnight - 6 a.m. period do not appear to generate as many complaints as are caused by the isolated flights at 3 & 4 in the morning.

Night-time noisy flight mystery solved ?

So many complaints about individual flights that wake people in the darkest hours !  All very mysterious & unfathomable (according to Sea-Tac Airport and the FAA).  Now, RCAA research provides a partial answer.

Working with flight-operations data for Sea-Tac for the period 15 March - 5 April 2010, provided by the Airport's Noise Office, we have learnt that there is a consistent pattern of one particular carrier flying very noisy planes in & out of Sea-Tac.  That carrier is FedEx, flying  MD11s and DC10s -- the noisiest planes still in common (civilian) use. 

Shouldn't the Airport take some effective action to get these noisy birds out of the skies during the wee hours?  If not, why not?