Kathleen Rourke turns over in bed at 2 in the morning, again waking up to the piercing sound of jet engines crying from above, she reports in the complaint log.
Her daughters in third- and eighth-grade roll out of bed at 5:15 a.m., the Logan International Airport red-eye flights disrupting their sleep on yet another school day, the mother notes.
Rourke, who lives on Logan Avenue in Medford — a cruel irony — continues to file complaints with Massport’s Noise Abatement office. It’s a near-daily habit for her and a group of fed-up residents who say the persistent roar is out of control.
“This is ruining our quality of life,” said Rourke, who moved to the east Medford neighborhood a dozen years ago — a more peaceful time, she said. The 53-year-old mother added that she’s worried about the planes flying over her children’s schools.
The Federal Aviation Administration a few years ago introduced new flight paths, resulting in days when flights appear every 90 seconds — depending on the weather and wind direction.
This air traffic corridor has sparked a spike of noise complaints from Medford, which easily leads the region for Logan Airport complaints this year.
Medford accounts for 5,210 of the 17,922 total noise complaints from across 50 Greater Boston communities in the first two months of the year, about 30 percent of the complaints documented by Massport’s Noise Abatement office, a Herald analysis shows.
In all of 2012, Medford dwellers filed a mere 15 complaints.
Medford residents experience less noise than those in East Boston and Winthrop close to the airport, and the planes are not right over their homes like they are in those communities. But the recent air traffic increase has mobilized citizens who live about 8 miles from the airport who say Medford was never supposed to be a go-to jumbo jet corridor.
The 5,210 complaints this year are from 93 residents in Medford, an average of 56 complaints per filer over the first 59 days of the year. And they’re not about to stop. The Logan Aircraft Noise Working Group of residents is focused on increasing the number of noise complaints.
“When airplane noise disrupts the quiet enjoyment of your home, file a complaint with Massport,” reads a postcard from the advocates. “The more complaints filed by residents with different street addresses, the more seriously your feedback will be taken.”
Peter Houk, who lives on Medford’s Ashcroft Road where the planes buzz over his home, said it’s key to expand the number of distinct callers.
“We’re on a collision course with the FAA,” said Houk, 61, the Medford rep on the Massport Community Advisory Committee, a group seeking changes in flight paths.
“The FAA really doesn’t want to address this problem but they will have to,” he added. “Communities like mine will not put up with these increases of noise and sleep deprivation.”
The FAA chooses the runways and oversees all aircraft movement. The 33L runway, in the direction of Medford, had 11,920 departures in 2012. That runway in the first three months of this year already had more departures: 12,121.
The FAA launched new flight paths a few years ago, using state-of-the-art technology for more direct paths between airports. This led to a concentration in certain areas, such as Medford.
“The FAA’s mission is to ensure the safe and efficient use of the National Airspace System,” reads a statement from the FAA last week. “In order to handle air traffic demands, runway configurations are used in accordance with runway selection criteria. The criteria include runway availability, runway conditions, wind, weather, operational efficiency and other factors.”
In 2016, the FAA and Massport signed a memorandum of understanding to reduce overflight noise impacts from Logan, the statement added.
“Massport has committed to develop a detailed scope of work to investigate the feasibility of certain procedural changes at Logan Airport for evaluation by the FAA, which includes creating additional departure procedures for Runway 33 Left to reduce track concentration,” the FAA added.
Newer engine technology has significantly reduced aircraft noise, but it continues to be a concern for communities, said Jennifer Mehigan, director of media relations for Massport.
The FAA/Massport area navigation study is a first-in-the-nation collaboration between the agencies. They have MIT engineers developing test projects, she said.
“One alternative being looked at by MIT to reduce noise is an option to spread out flights on 33L departures and adjust aircraft speed,” Mehigan added.
Overall across the region, noise complaints have increased dramatically since 2012, when residents filed 2,331 complaints to Massport. Last year, there were 71,381 complaints, led by Milton’s 34,902 — nearly half of overall complaints.
This year so far, Milton comes in third overall with 2,343 complaints, and Jamaica Plain is second with 2,971. Somerville and Roxbury are both below 2,000 complaints but residents there are also pleading for relief.
This noise complaint issue comes as Massport faces heat for significant salary hikes, the Herald reported last week. Two executives will take home more than $300,000 this year. Nineteen others will make $200,000-plus, and more than 350 other employees will receive $100,000 or more. Medford residents said they want to see some return on that investment.
