Feds Released Wrong Info On New Airport Flight Paths
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Federal officials released incorrect and incomplete information about how new O’Hare International Airport flight paths would affect residents during a legally required period of public comment, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.
Nearly three-quarters of the figures in one key table — on the now-contentious issue of what percentage of traffic each runway will carry — were quietly changed online months after public hearings ended, the Sun-Times discovered.
Some changes doubled, tripled and even quadrupled the percentage of flights the runways were predicted to direct over Bensenville, Wood Dale, the city’s 41st Ward and Schiller Park by the time the $8 billion O’Hare Modernization Program is completed.
In addition, the Sun-Times found that the Federal Aviation Administration had the figures to calculate the actual number of flights each runway would carry but never produced those numbers at the legally required public hearings in 2005 on its draft environmental impact study of the project.
During those hearings, the FAA did display a map of areas it predicted were due for more noise, but critics called it “misleading.’’ An FAA spokesman said it was very clear.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Federal officials released incorrect and incomplete information about how new O’Hare International Airport flight paths would affect residents during a legally required period of public comment, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.
Nearly three-quarters of the figures in one key table — on the now-contentious issue of what percentage of traffic each runway will carry — were quietly changed online months after public hearings ended, the Sun-Times discovered.
Some changes doubled, tripled and even quadrupled the percentage of flights the runways were predicted to direct over Bensenville, Wood Dale, the city’s 41st Ward and Schiller Park by the time the $8 billion O’Hare Modernization Program is completed.
In addition, the Sun-Times found that the Federal Aviation Administration had the figures to calculate the actual number of flights each runway would carry but never produced those numbers at the legally required public hearings in 2005 on its draft environmental impact study of the project.
During those hearings, the FAA did display a map of areas it predicted were due for more noise, but critics called it “misleading.’’ An FAA spokesman said it was very clear.
Read more in our daily News Update...