Officials attempt to ease noise concerns     

Thursday, 01 February 2007 

By KENT JACKSON

Standard-Speaker

The man who proposed a freight airport in Humboldt said pilots and approach paths can minimize the noise that people will hear from the flights.

“Airlines are flying over some of the most expensive real estate in the world,” Michael Marsicano of Gladstone Partners said when referring to parts of Orange County and Long Beach, Calif.

Marsicano, an airline pilot who suggested a freight airport when he was mayor of Hazleton, said planes taking off over sections of California reduce power and turn away from the land. Then they climb steeply before throttling up.

Because of innovations in propulsion, the sound from jets now registers at 92 decibels, he said. An Internet site, CoolMath.com, said an acoustic guitar played on a home stereo hits 80 decibels and power tools rev at 110 decibels. The site, however, measures a plane on a runway at 120 decibels and a jet engine up close at 160 decibels.

Bob Powell of Gladstone Partners said the airport would need numerous approvals from regulatory agencies and said the process and the plans should put people’s concerns to rest.

“There will be many opportunities to discuss this project,” state Rep. Todd Eachus, D-116, said.

Eachus said the airport site is near an industrial park.

“It’s not saddled up to the city of Hazleton,” he said.

While he said the exact flight plan hasn’t been set yet, a video played on Wednesday during a news conference showed planes approaching from Williamsport.

At Muncy, jets would descend to 8,000 feet.

As they approach the airport, they would make a U-turn, perhaps over Audenried and Interstate 81, to land into the wind, which generally blows from the west.

On takeoffs, the jets would turn over mineland toward Lehighton and reach 8,000 feet when they fly over that borough.