Hackensack residents voice concerns over Teterboro Airport flight paths

Some Hackensack residents are making their noise and safety concerns known regarding flight paths out of Teterboro Airport.
The residents brought their issues to a committee of town officials who try to mitigate the noise from jets landing at the airport. The residents asked the committee why the flight path over their neighborhoods hadn’t been changed, as the FAA proposed over a year ago.
“They fly over the schools. They fly over the hospital. They fly over the high-rises and they’re very low,” says resident Connie Bovino.
Teterboro Airport sees a lot of air traffic, particularly from private jets. Over 39,000 aircrafts came through the airport in just the first three months of 2017. Many of the planes fly right by Hackensack.
“I was at a meeting at one of the condos on one of the higher floors, not even the top floor, and when a plane went by, you actually saw the pilot’s face,” says Deputy Mayor Kathy Canestrino.
The FAA tried a new flight path over Route 17 last year. It was a plan Hackensack residents really wanted, but residents in many other towns did not. The plan was never implemented, and Canestrino says that the FAA didn't run its testing properly and didn't get enough solid data.
Pilots were not required to fly the new flight paths.
“If you really want to do a true test and get real data there has to not be options,” the deputy mayor says.
FAA officials and a representative did not comment on how the test was run at Wednesday’s meeting. They did say that the route they proposed last year was developed over the span of a decade. The committee also admitted that they had absolutely no power to make the FAA change flight paths to deal with noise safety or any other concerns.
Hackensack residents were told that they may get a separate meeting with the FAA to voice their concerns. For now, the planes will keep flying as they have been.