SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, Calif. — For more than 15 years Vicky Herman has lived in the same Sherman Oaks home. 

“My plan in life was to retire to this home. I worked my butt off 24/7, working hard to support myself and my family,” Herman said. 

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But according to Herman her idyllic retirement home lost its charm, peace and quiet in 2018; after the implementation of the Southern California Metroplex Project, part of the FAA’s NextGen modernization plan. 

She says the system, meant to increase efficiency and safety, has also increased noise pollution from planes flying over her home from nearby Hollywood Burbank and Van Nuys airports. 

“Come here, look up here, right over my house,” said Herman, pointing to a plane. 

According to the FAA, from 2016 to 2018, the Hollywood Burbank Airport had a 22 percent increase in air carrier operations. Herman says she has noticed it.

“This isn’t a way to live, all it really is a way to just exist but there is no living,” she said.

For months, hundredths of residents including Herman have showed up at task force meetings to voice their concerns.

And then on Thursday December 12, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced a lawsuit against the FAA for changing flight paths with no public notice, public comment or proper environmental review.

“We want the FAA to be ordered by a court to correct the southern shift that was not studied pursuant to the environmental process in the metroplex system in the first place” said Feuer.

The FAA said they don’t comment on pending litigation and sent us the following statement:

“We have explained to the communities and the San Fernando Valley Task Force, we have not changed how we handle Burbank departures in the immediate airport environment. Aircraft today – as they have in the past – turn to a compass heading shortly after takeoff and continue to fly that heading until air traffic controllers instruct pilots to begin their turns to the west and north. The changes that we made in March 2017 take effect 11 nautical miles north, and 17 nautical miles northwest, of the airport.”

The statement goes on to say:

“Some flights do fly further southwest today before beginning their turns. That could be due to a number of factors including air traffic volume, air temperature, fleet mix, radio frequency congestion and air traffic control priorities.”

The administration estimates the metroplex project saves more than $8 million in fuel and cuts carbon emissions by 26,000 metric tons.

Nevertheless, affected residents like Herman say the effects of the program on this neighborhood must end. 

“It’s unconscionable and it’s untenable and it has to stop,” she said.

Whatever happens it’s fight or flights.