MONTEREY PARK >> Last Thursday, Vice Mayor Teresa Real Sebastian was woken from a sound sleep at 2:14 a.m.
Her walls were rattling, so she and her husband took cover because they thought an earthquake had struck. When the shaking settled down not long after, they both realized what had happened — an airplane had just flown over their home.
“When I began living here in 1971, the planes flew over sporadically and at much higher altitudes,” Real Sebastian said. “I never recall being woken up or having to stop a conversation because a plane flew over until the past few years.”
In the past two weeks, Monterey Park civic leaders like Real Sebastian and residents have ramped up efforts to lobby against planes flying over the city.
Last week, the city bussed 70 residents to a meeting of the LAX Community Noise Roundtable — an association of local communities, Los Angeles World Airports, the Federal Aviation Administration and airline industry representatives — to complain about noise. On Wednesday, the city held a public information session to relay the information they had compiled so far.
“The louder we are, the quieter we hope our skies will be,” said Monterey Park planning commissioner Margaret Leung.
Leung, a mechanical engineer by trade, began taking note of the airplanes in the past two years because, like many other residents, she noticed an increase in flights overhead in the city.
Monterey Park lies at the very end of LAX’s “extended downwind approach” path, which allows planes to circle when they can’t land due to weather issues or airplane traffic at the airport. On the approach, planes dip in height as they turn and head back toward LAX.
LAX traffic volume is up significantly over the last few years, said Ian Gregor, public affairs manager for the FAA Pacific Division.
That means more flights over Monterey Park, Leung said. In May 2014, 2,045 planes flew over the city, and the number rose to 3,836 in May 2015 and grew to 4,837 May 2016, according LAX data.
The main issue is low-flying planes, Leung said. Of the 4,837 planes that flew over Monterey Park in May, about half flew over in the 2,400 to 3,000 foot range.
Leung lives one of the city’s hills, and she said the planes are closer to 2,000 ft. away from her home and the others in her neighborhood.
“I wasn’t even interested in city government until I started inquiring about the airplanes,” Leung said. “The noise was so loud that I had to get involved.”
However, the noise isn’t loud enough for residents to qualify for LAX’s sound insulation rebate programs, said spokeswoman Katherine Alvarado.
But insulation would not fix the problem, Leung said. At last week’s roundtable, Leung proposed that the extended downwind approach only be used during emergency and poor weather situations, that planes maintain an altitude of 6,000 ft. before they make their turn and that planes fly no closer than 4,000 ft. to structures in Monterey Park.
Leung’s suggestions echo ones made by the roundtable in a 2002 letter to the FAA. In 14 years, none of the suggestions have been implemented, leaving Monterey Park residents to suffer, Real Sebastian said.
“Our residents can’t even carry on a conversation outside when a plane flies over,” Real Sebastian said. “It never used to be like this, and we don’t think it has to be like this.”
