Airport Noise Is No Secret

The article, “Airport Neighbors Oppose Plan to Conduct Secret Route Tests for Helicopter Noise,” is inaccurate, unfair and non-objective.

To support the untrue statement that “attempts to reduce noise complaints are bogged down in a dispute between airport officials and some residents,” The Times quotes only two sources, one of whom is an Encino resident, not a neighbor of Van Nuys Airport.

This does not represent credibility. The Encino resident was the only one at the May 11 meeting, upon which the article was based, who labeled the test of a different route “secret.” Many of us, nearby homeowners and airport tenants, are cooperatively working to resolve the noise problem from both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.

The article is typical of The Times’ policy to promote confrontation rather than emphasizing the positive hard work of volunteers to solve problems.

There is no secretiveness to tests to try to find better solutions to the helicopter noise problem. The report that proposes various possible approaches to mitigating noise has been available at public meetings since December, 1991, and comments have been welcomed. We who have constructively participated in the meetings to try to find solutions have found a cooperative spirit, not confrontation. We have not been hand-picked as was stated; we have volunteered to study the issues constructively.

JOHN C. SELLS and NANCY H. SELLS

Van Nuys