City rolls out its revised O’Hare night flight plan
City consultants Tuesday rolled out a revised version of their O’Hare Airport night flight plan — this one featuring weekly rotations of runways over a 12- week period to spread out night jet noise.
The latest plan, envisioned only as a six- month test, drew immediate support from the chair of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission but swift objections from northwest suburban Palatine.
Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Elk Grove Village could be affected by night arrivals or departures during five weeks of the 12- week rotation plan, Tim Miller of Palatine warned.
As a result, “It’s potentially more noise,” Miller said. “I am in favor of rotating runways, but the whole point is not to concentrate noise.”
In addition, two other flight corridors also could be affected by night arrivals and departures over five of the 12 weeks: an area east of O’Hare that includes portions of Schiller Park, Norridge, Harwood Heights and slivers of the city’s 38th, 41st and possibly 45th wards, as well as a second area west of O’Hare involving parts of Bensenville and Wood Dale, city data indicated.
Those two corridors fall in between the flight tracks of Runways 10L- 28R and 10C28C — two runways that are so close together that some advocates say their flights affect essentially the same communities.
O’Hare noise complaints have skyrocketed to record levels since O’Hare dramatically changed its flight paths in October 2013 as part of an ongoing $ 8.7 billion airfield overhaul. The change brought new waves of planes over areas east and west of O’Hare.
New City Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans last year vowed to try to address the night portion of the new noise by rotating night runway usage. However, her initial plan drew only a simple- majority margin of support from the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission last month.
Noise Commission Chair Arlene Juracek said Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration will accept only night changes approved by a two- thirds margin. If that margin is achieved at the commission’s May meeting, a six- month test could begin in May or June, officials said during a meeting of the commission’s Technical Committee.
The city’s latest plan tosses overboard some elements of the old one and focuses solely on providing more detail about night runway rotations.
The revised proposal uses current flight paths and envisions that from as early as 10: 45 p. m. until as late as 5: 30 a. m., O’Hare would use no more than two runways for arrivals and departures. It outlines 10 arrival- departure runway combinations, each with a backup plan, spread over 12 weeks.
Night traffic would alternate between diagonal runways one week and eastwest parallel runways the next week, for 12 weeks. That means now heavily affected Chicago wards and other areas east and west of O’Hare would be spared night traffic for six of the 12 weeks.
City consultant Doug Goldberg said: “We want to balance the noise across all communities.”
“Compared to the status quo, it’s a better idea,’’ said Juracek, the mayor of Mount Prospect. “If we don’t approve this, we’re going to be stuck with the status quo.’’