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How Does the "Stop The Noise" Lawsuit Affect You?
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According to AOPA President Phil Boyer: “This lawsuit isn't about breaking any regulations; it's about someone complaining about legal noise overhead. That puts the pilot of a single-engine trainer flying at 2,500 feet and the pilot of a Boeing 757 flying at 35,000 feet in equal jeopardy. This is a case we must win to prevent a dangerous precedent,” (President's Position, AOPA Pilot, April 2004). The current precedent-setting lawsuit could put any pilot at legal and financial risk for simply flying within earshot of anyone who objects to the noise generated by an aircraft flying overhead. Although no flight operations would necessarily be safe under this precedent, flight training, helicopters, sightseeing, and aerobatics are particularly vulnerable due to their mission profiles. The use of such “nuisance” lawsuits is a new tactic which, despite conventional wisdom or popular opinion, has no clear legislative, regulatory, or case law precedent. If successful even by simply intimidating pilots into avoiding whole geographical areas, it could give individuals across the country the ability to regulate the use of federal airspace by legally restricting or intimidating pilots against flying within hearing distance of their homes and communities. This small but vocal group of individuals is already working with similar-minded groups in at least California, Colorado, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to accomplish similar goals in those areas, and there are reports of legal threats against pilots in at least two other states as well.
What would happen
to GA if students and renters had to fear lawsuits, or
even depositions and questioning, for flying in legal
airspace? Settling these suits out of court by having
pilots give up their rights to fly over entire geographic
areas will only encourage additional suits and erode
America’s freedom of flight. Only a strong, vigorous,
and ultimately victorious defense will discourage future
suits.
The financial burden on the defendants to sustain a defense, rather than settling out of court and thus setting a dangerous precedent, is enormous and far out of proportion to any personal benefit to them – it would be much easier to settle, as the plaintiffs have repeatedly suggested, and leave the problem to whoever is targeted next. The GA Legal Defense Fund needs your donation to make a strong defense possible and protect the future of flight in this country.
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General
Aviation Legal Defense Fund
