Van Nuys Airport Noise

Re “Sound Barriers,” May 12.

My wife and I moved to Sherman Oaks over 13 years ago. Then, the Van Nuys Airport was a quiet private, small-craft airport. It was not even a consideration when we purchased our home about 3 miles from the airport because it had no noisy Stage 2 jets taking off at all hours of the day and night.

You can imagine our disappointment in the bureaucrats when limits on noise were ignored. Van Nuys airport and those who are responsible for controlling it have failed miserably in making the facility community friendly. For over 10 years, this facility opened its doors to a few companies with noisy Stage 2 jets and television news helicopters, and allowed them to blast their engines at our homes as they bank as far as four miles from the airport. They treat us as a backwash for their pollution and window-rattling jet blasts and flyovers.

Don’t be fooled. Los Angeles is losing significant revenue dollars allowing a small group on the Airport Commission to run an airport that serves the few and angers the rest.

Who is listening? No one really, for the [effort described] in your article is only a ploy to pacify the community, as it is an election year. After the elections, the racket will continue.

WAYNE WILLIAMS, Sherman Oaks