Lakeland Linder Airport officials, nearby residents hope to land on a solution for noise complaints

LAKELAND, Fla. - Imagine the sound of a jet engine interrupting dinner time or phone calls. 

READ: Man pleads guilty in 1984 Hillsborough County murder, sentenced to 50 years in prison

Neighbors near Lakeland Linder Airport say that's been the case for them for years. On Thursday, airport officials held a special meeting to address noise concerns and present solutions.

Airport officials say it's impossible to completely eliminate the noise of these jet engines, so they're trying to change the areas they fly over, but some residents aren't convinced it'll do much, and a few even feel they should be compensated for what they have to endure.

The sound of Amazon cargo jets coming and going from Lakeland Linder Airport has been a nuisance to neighbors for years.

"You can't hear the TV," Margaret Holmes, who lives nearby, said. "The phones don't work half the time because the airplanes take all the 5G."

Holmes lives more than 3 miles away from the airport. It's a similar case for Jim and Sherry Murray.

"You could be sitting outside having your breakfast and an Amazon airplane goes over, and you can't hear each other, so the quality of life is diminished," Sherry Murray said.

Since December 2021, the airport has been looking for solutions to reduce jet engine noise. Lakeland commissioners noticed a spike in noise complaints shortly after Amazon began cargo jet operations there. 

On Thursday night, they presented their findings to the community.

"We're actually trying to move the noise over more industrial, more compatible corridors, so we're trying to move it over more industrial areas, more transportation corridors because it's impossible to eliminate the noise completely," Lakeland Linder International Airport Assistant Director Adam Lunn said.

Neighbors got to meet with airport officials, ask questions, and give feedback. One suggestion by neighbors was compensation or tax breaks for residents who live nearby to make up for the impact on their quality of life, especially as airport revenues ramp up with more planes coming in.

"The people who are really going to benefit from it are the people behind me who work at this airport, whose salaries are going to go higher as more and more equipment and bigger equipment come on in here, so they make up for it. We don't," neighbor Jim Murray said.

Some residents say they've tried to move but can't sell their homes because of the noise.

"We're trying to bring the airplanes in a little bit higher on an automated approach, so the pilots won't have to adjust their throttles as much, so you won't have that noise on the ground and then again, move them over those more compatible land uses, but unfortunately, we won't be able to eliminate all the noise in the residential areas," Lunn said.

To change the routes and areas the planes fly over the airport, they will need to get approval from the FAA which is the next step in the process. That could happen sometime in December. 

If it does get approved, they could implement the changes sometime early next year.