Some Bradenton residents have noise concerns with planes flying in and out of SRQ

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - Video recently shot by Gary Pixley shows a loud plane over his neighborhood. He lives in the Bayshore Gardens area near SaraBay Estates in Bradenton, not far from Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Pixley says the noise from these planes has gotten worse in recent months.

“Getting to relax, watch the news or whatever and you can’t hear because of the noise,” said Pixley.

Planes landing at SRQ often fly right over Pixley’s neighborhood. But his main concern is aircraft taking off from SRQ. He say the flight pattern for departing airliners isn’t supposed to go over his neighborhood.

“Roars of engines from the jets when they do take off, and it’s a constant sound until it gets further away, and it even gets louder,” said Pixley.

SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo says the flight pattern has been in place for decades but concedes there are many more flights now because of the growth of the airport. He says there could be a number of reasons departing aircraft may not always follow the same route.

“On average they deviate maybe 4 percent a month and that could be for a number of reasons,” said Piccolo. “Maybe the pilot didn’t comply, but more often than not it’s either the weather or other air traffic that forces them not to comply.”

Piccolo says SRQ has spent tens of millions of dollars over the years to improve the noise situation for nearby residents. As for the concerns that have been brought up, he says SRQ will continue being the best neighbor they can be.

“We’re an airport, we’re going to make noise,” said Piccolo. “But I think if you look at the data, it has improved tremendously from the 1990s. From the aircraft equipment, it’s technology is much, much quieter and much better and the routes are more precise now.”

Pixley is hopeful that something more on this can be done to bring a little more peace and quiet to him and his neighbors.

“I hope that somebody would at least address it and see what can be done to improve it a little more,” said Pixley.

Piccolo says that SRQ does receive about 20 noise complaints each month between Sarasota and Manatee counties.