Residents of Greenwood Village showed up an a meeting of the Centennial Airport community noise roundtable to ask where it's all coming from. What they found out is that shifting flight patterns and increased air traffic has led to a big increase in flights over residential areas of Greenwood Village, a 74% increase between 2019 and 2022. "It really accelerated really in the past six, seven eight months," said Paul Cucci, a longtime resident of Greenwood Village. Overhead planes passed as we spoke with Cucci and two neighbors, Deanna Zerr and Audra Dubler. "4:28 in the morning," said Zerr about one early flight circling low overhead. "And there's no point in going back to sleep at this point."
In good weather, it goes on all day they explained. "If it's sunny like this and then warm we can have up to 1,200 laps over our homes," said Dubler. Many of the flights are from flight schools that operate at Centennial. Increased demand for pilots has led to an increase of flight school activity explained Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority executive director Mike Fronapfel. "Part of the solution involves flight schools," he told the crowd at the meeting at the airport Wednesday night.
But the airport is at odds with the FAA over some changes made after a May 2021 mid-air collision over Cherry Creek State Park . The FAA told its tower controllers to stagger landings on side-by-side runways. Many Greenwood Village residents believe that has led to more flights over their residential areas. "I would say I can pinpoint the faucet went on in June of 2022," said Dubler. Data shows that more flights are going farther north of the airport. Dubler and her neighbors worry there are dangers from flight school flights going over neighborhoods as opposed to areas like Cherry Creek State Park. "Those are leaded gasoline emissions. They are flying right over eight Cherry Creek Schools," she said about the planes, many of which still use leaded fuel. Ultimately, frustrated residents talked about their frustrations with the FAA and airport not creating a solution to solve their noise problems as flights have increased. "It's an unlivable situation," said Dubler. "We can't live like this anymore."
Alan Gionet is a reporter for CBS News Colorado. Read his latest reports or check out his bio and send him an email.