Aitken meets with SRQ airport officials

The results of a Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport review are in, but, for one resident, they don’t solve the issue of airplanes ascending over the north end of Longboat Key.

Emerald Harbor resident and retired Navy pilot Andrew Aitken notified the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Board in January that pilots are not following procedures, particularly near the north end of the Key.

Pilots cleared for takeoff on Runway 32, the airport’s most western runway, Aitken said, must fly west for a minimum of seven miles before beginning a turn toward their destinations.

But Aitken has noticed that aircrafts with a northern destination to places such as Atlanta are beginning their turns at between three and four miles, which takes them over the north end of Longboat Key. The move means that planes are gaining altitude over the Key — when most of the plane-ascension noise is emitted.

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport CEO Fred Piccolo told Aitken he would review the airport’s compliance with noise-abatement procedures.

After meeting with Piccolo, Aitken believes the problem exists on the federal level and that the pilots are being cleared to make early-ascension turns.

Piccolo and Aitken met March 30 at the airport, and Piccolo explained in a follow-up email that he will be discussing the issue with his managers later this month.

In a March 31 email to Vice Mayor David Brenner, Aitken outlined what he now believes to be the crux of the problem.

“The point was made that SRQ personnel are doing everything necessary to ensure that Federal Aviation Association (FAA) rules, and the FAA controllers interpretation of them, are complied with by departing aircraft,” Aitken wrote in his email. “But it is the underlying rules that are flawed.”

Aitken explained that Piccolo and the airport staff will appeal to the FAA and ask them not to allow an early-ascension turn over the island.

“I consider the overall review of departure procedures as ongoing,” Aitken wrote in his email. “I intend to follow it closely.”

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]