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Night flights still keeping us awake
residents decry delay in new airport plan, draft of revised path in the hands of Transport Canada, ADM says
The Gazette
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
A resident watches a jet land at airport in Dorval. (The Gazette)
Three months after Aéroports de Montréal announced that night
flights over various parts of the city would be cancelled because
they failed to meet pre-set criteria, jets flying out of Trudeau
airport are still waking up residents in St. Laurent, Cartier-ville,
Ahuntsic, Saraguay and Laval.
And yesterday, residents of those communities and leaders of a
coalition of citizen groups called the delay unacceptable.
"It's almost a human rights issue," said John Kosiuk, a long-time
Cartierville resident and doctor at Montreal's Royal Victoria
Hospital.
"You are entitled to sleep."
Since the nighttime flight path was introduced over his
neighbourhood in 2006, Kosiuk said, he has rarely enjoyed a decent
night's rest and he is tired of waiting.
The noise of jets flying over his house, he said, keeps him up
until midnight or 1 a.m., then wakes him up again at 6.
"If you are going to fly over (my house) at 1 a.m., don't come back
five hours later," a frustrated Kosiuk said.
The contentious flight path, which requires that pilots make a
sharp left turn over Highway 13 to avoid residential neighbourhoods
below, was officially shelved in July because it proved a challenge
to many pilots.
However, ADM spokesperson Stéphanie Lepage confirmed yesterday the
nighttime flight over St. Laurent, Cartierville, Saraguay, Ahuntsic
and Laval is still in operation.
Lepage said the ADM has drafted a revised flight path that would
re-direct flights during restricted hours - departures between
midnight and 7 a.m. and arrivals between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.
But that flight path is in the hands of Transport Canada.
"It's really their decision," Lepage said. "We don't have a
deadline."
Transport Canada said yesterday it has received the revised flight
paths from ADM. But spokesperson Marie-Annick Côté said she could
not say how close they are to being approved.
Opposition to night flights has grown in recent months, as have
calls for night flights to be returned to Mirabel, said Luc Marion,
president of Citizens for Quality of Life, a coalition of community
groups fighting night flights.
Lachine, LaSalle, Laval, Ahuntsic, St. Laurent, Town of Mont Royal
and Dorval have all passed resolutions against night flights, Marion
said.
Now, he added, a coalition of mayors, including Dorval's Edgar
Rouleau and Town of Mont Royal's Vera Danyluk, is forming to fight
ADM's stone-walling.
"It's our impression they are stalling," Marion said.
Every 56 days, the Canadian Air Pilot, a manual published by NAV
Canada, is re-issued with new information for pilots flying in and
out of Canadian airports, including Pierre Elliott Trudeau
International Airport.