It is 50 years today that take-off procedures for airplanes were put in place at Brussels airport. For fifty years we have been talking about the noise pollution caused precisely by air traffic so, faced with this situation, faced with a certain inertia in the case, the federal airport mediator decided to draw up a complete map of the areas overflown with one objective: to finally improve the comfort and serenity of local residents.
It’s a bitter anniversary. Fifty years to the day that air traffic around Zaventem has been the subject of debate. Despite the nuisances repeatedly decried, an exhaustive study of the problem is still awaited. “On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary, I’m taking the lead, I’m saying it openly, I’m a little fed up that we’re going around in circles. So I’m coming with a map that respects my federal jurisdiction “, explains Philippe Touwaide, air mediator of the federal government – FPS mobility.
In this document, an overview of the most overflown municipalities. Departing from the airport’s main runway, the north, south-west and east of Brussels are particularly affected among the main victims. Wezembeek Oppem is at the crossroads of three runways: landings and take-offs.
“I live there a little further. They pass just above my house. I can tell you that if we are having an aperitif in the garden, we stop for twenty seconds because that we don’t understand each other”, says a local resident.
“It passes too close to the houses, mine too because I live here not too far. There are a lot of planes that pass really low”, says a resident. “I’ve lived here for twenty years so obviously, little by little, we get used to it. Now, obviously, when someone points out to us that there is a noise, it’s true that we make a little fix on it and so we hear them again”, explains a man.
For the federal mediator, the problem does not come from the flight paths but above all from the take-off times and the type of aircraft: “There are planes which are wide-bodied which are much too noisy, which are polluting, which disturb people, which leave just before 11 p.m., which no longer have their reason to be here at Brussels-National. And I also noticed that its planes had been banned from certain airports and as we are lax at Brussels-National we accepted them. Brussels-National must not become the dustbin of other airports in Europe”.
If the mapping carried out by the mediator makes it possible to visualize the extent of the overflight, it is now necessary to measure its impact on the health of local residents. A question that this time falls under regional jurisdiction.