Burlington's new mayor can stop the F-35 training at the city-owned airport

Burlington’s new mayor is well equipped to abolish the F-35 training at the city-owned airport. Not just because she is a brilliant and capable politician who has years of experience on the Burlington City Council, as a member of the Vermont legislature, as a community organizer, and as a labor organizer. Not just because she has the ability to bring people together to solve complex problems. Not just because she pledged upon taking office in April, “As your mayor, community safety will be my top priority.” And not just because she is determined to put a stop to the child-injuring and child-abusing F-35 training flights in a city.

She also has the law on her side.

The Law

Under federal law, as airport proprietor, Burlington has the power to set a noise safety standard for all aircraft based at the city’s airport. Now that the city has a mayor who wants to make community safety a priority, that airport-proprietor power can finally be used here.  

The authority of municipal airport owners to set a reasonable noise standard has long been approved under federal court decisions and under FAA regulations and grant assurances, as described in an FAA-issued report, “Aviation Noise Abatement Policy 2000.” (see pps. 29 to 34). The airport-proprietor power to establish a safety standard for its airport is so firmly established in federal law that the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state is pre-empted from interfering with the safety standard established by the local airport proprietor. San Diego Unified Port Dist. v. Gianturco, 651 F.2d 1306 (9th Cir. 1981).

The Air Force knew the F-35 basing in a city would harm children

The F-35 basing had been the subject of long deliberation by the Air Force and its commanders. The multi-volume F-35 Environmental Impact Statement (“The Air Force EIS”) they produced in 2013 provided detailed information about the anticipated danger, especially for the 1,300 children living in the extreme F-35 noise zone around the airport

The Air Force EIS says “that aircraft noise can affect the academic performance of schoolchildren,” that “chronic exposure to high aircraft noise levels can impair learning,” that “tasks involving central processing and language comprehension (such as reading, attention, problem solving, and memory) appear to be the most affected by noise,” that “it has been demonstrated that chronic exposure of first- and second-grade children to aircraft noise can result in reading deficits and impaired speech perception,” that “children residing near the Los Angeles International Airport had had more difficulty solving cognitive problems and did not perform as well as children from quieter schools in puzzle-solving and attentiveness.” (Vol. II, p. C-28 to C-30).

Race and Class

The Air Force EIS also noted that the assault on children depended on race and class: “disproportionate impacts” on low income and minority populations were admitted by the Air Force. (Vol. I p. BR4-83).

Why Burlington was selected

With its dangerous 115-decibel noise extending over a very large area, the F-35 was not designed for safely participating in city life. The selection of Burlington airport was to give Vermont airmen real-life experience targeting civilian families by using the F-35 in a manner for which it was not designed that causes unnecessary suffering. Training where the extreme noise inherently targets cities full of civilians with indiscriminate violence. The densely populated location of the Burlington airport is ideal for pilots to practice hurting adults and children without any risk of the pilot ever being punished. Commanders selected the Burlington airport for the F-35 training so the airmen are ready to drop bombs on residential neighborhoods in the next illegal and immoral US war based on lies, like Vietnam and like Iraq. So they have practice committing war crimes with impunity.

The airport-proprietor authority allows the city to fix this problem

Federal law allows the city-owned airport to quickly end this odious abuse. Using its federal airport-proprietor authority, the city can adopt a standard for safety, such as requiring all aircraft based at BTV airport to comply with the same aircraft noise safety standard the FAA long-ago established for civilian aircraft. Doing so would not affect any civilian aircraft using the airport because all of them already meet that strict FAA safety standard. The Air Force would be the only outlaw, blasting thousands of civilian families with the 115-decibel F-35, a noise level that far exceeds that FAA noise standard for safety.

The Air Force could bring itself into compliance by providing the Vermont Air National Guard with compatible aircraft for its city location or it can provide a non-flying mission for the Guard. Halting the F-35 training in a densely populated city would also comply with Air Force and Vermont Guard discipline, US law, and international law, all of which forbid targeting civilians.

The fact that the law as it exists gives the city, as airport proprietor, the power to set a noise safety standard allows the new mayor to make a huge accomplishment for community safety: abolishing the F-35 training at the city-owned airport.