Bring on the lawyers.
For months Delaware County officials have been warning the feds they would go to court if they moved forward with the controversial airport redesign plan that would allow planes over heavily populated areas of the county at low altitudes.
Yesterday the Federal Aviation Administration called their bluff.
Now it appears the two sides are on a legal collision course.
Down in D.C., the FAA announced it would go forward with their "preferred" plan, a project that would radically alter flight paths over Philadelphia International Airport as well as others in the Northeast region.
The bottom line is this. Up until now most flights taking off from the airport have hugged the Delaware River until they reached a high enough altitude before veering off on their course. Under the FAA plan, pilots will be able to head over areas of the county at altitudes as low as 3,000 feet.
The FAA says the plan will save several minutes and ease the chronic delays that too often bring travel to a standstill at the airport. Not so, say both Delco officials and U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-7. They claim the FAA’s own records indicate the time saved is more like seconds per flight.
The two sides have been lobbing hand grenades at each other for months. A series of public hearings at other locations in the Northeast was met with something of a shrug. Not here.
A meeting in Ridley drew hundreds of angry residents, fearful of more planes over their homes, more noise, and a big hit in their property values.
Sestak is still banking on an investigation of the process used by the FAA that will be conducted by the Government Accountability Office.
But the county might not wait for that. They are vowing to sue. If they can’t stop the plan, they at least hope to delay it.
Council boss Andy Reilly, who has led the vocal opposition in the county to the plan, said they could file suit as early as next week.
The FAA is hoping to train air traffic controllers and get the plan into use withing the next 30 to 60 days.
This one is going to get ugly. And expensive.
In most places across the country, these kinds of challenges have failed.
Delco is hoping to reverse that trend.
The noise over this plan is just beginning.
For months Delaware County officials have been warning the feds they would go to court if they moved forward with the controversial airport redesign plan that would allow planes over heavily populated areas of the county at low altitudes.
Yesterday the Federal Aviation Administration called their bluff.
Now it appears the two sides are on a legal collision course.
Down in D.C., the FAA announced it would go forward with their "preferred" plan, a project that would radically alter flight paths over Philadelphia International Airport as well as others in the Northeast region.
The bottom line is this. Up until now most flights taking off from the airport have hugged the Delaware River until they reached a high enough altitude before veering off on their course. Under the FAA plan, pilots will be able to head over areas of the county at altitudes as low as 3,000 feet.
The FAA says the plan will save several minutes and ease the chronic delays that too often bring travel to a standstill at the airport. Not so, say both Delco officials and U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-7. They claim the FAA’s own records indicate the time saved is more like seconds per flight.
The two sides have been lobbing hand grenades at each other for months. A series of public hearings at other locations in the Northeast was met with something of a shrug. Not here.
A meeting in Ridley drew hundreds of angry residents, fearful of more planes over their homes, more noise, and a big hit in their property values.
Sestak is still banking on an investigation of the process used by the FAA that will be conducted by the Government Accountability Office.
But the county might not wait for that. They are vowing to sue. If they can’t stop the plan, they at least hope to delay it.
Council boss Andy Reilly, who has led the vocal opposition in the county to the plan, said they could file suit as early as next week.
The FAA is hoping to train air traffic controllers and get the plan into use withing the next 30 to 60 days.
This one is going to get ugly. And expensive.
In most places across the country, these kinds of challenges have failed.
Delco is hoping to reverse that trend.
The noise over this plan is just beginning.
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