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Now, after nearly a decade of study,the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has come up with a plan to impose a night curfew on noisy jets.
"The proposed plan is to in fact implement a curfew at Bob Hope Airport, if we can get the FAA approval. It would run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.," said Victor Gill, a Burbank Airport representative.
Overnight operations at Burbank are now confined almost entirely to executive jets. A curfew, if adopted, would force these sleek speedsters arriving after 11 p.m. to find somewhere else to land.
Residents around the Van Nuys Airport fear they'll come there. Joan Kelly lives just a block away. She remembers long, sleepless nights before Los Angeles banned all but the quietest jets.
"Before the curfew, with the nosier jets it was impossible. You could not hear TV and we could not speak on the phone. It disrupted our whole life," said Kelly.
Burbank Airport authorities insist they're not attempting to shift their noise burden onto their Van Nuys neighbors.
"Actually a number of airports around the Southern California area like Camarillo would get some. Ontario would actually get probably as much as Van Nuys, so it is really spreading the load out. It is not directing them there it is where there likely to want to go," said Gill.
Gill says it's consultants found it's cheaper to enact a overnight curfew at Burbank than pay nearby residents to sound proof their homes.
Only about 16 private and corporate flights would be affected. The veterans of the noise wars in Van Nuys say they'll fight to keep the jets away.
"To be looking at possibly 16 or more aircrafts a night would double the jet noise that we are getting now between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. It is just not fair," said Don Schultz from the Citizens Advisory Council.
The public will get a chance to weigh in at a public hearing that is scheduled for next month. The FAA ultimately will make the final decision.