Kathleen Bergen’s legalistic quibble that changing the Hartsfield airspace won’t–in and of itself–allow Hartsfield jets to fly lower is almost as hilarious as Joseph Smith’s response to the accusation that he was engaging in polygamy (at a time when he had at least 20 plural wives) that “This is too ridiculous to be believed.” Indeed, the charge was too ridiculous to be believed. But it also happened to be true.
What lowering the Hartsfield airspace over us will allow Hartsfleid jets to do is fly lower when they are instructed to do so; but if jets aren’t given instructions that they can fly lower, they won’t. But the jets will fly lower, and that point was clearly made by the FAA officials at the March 1 meeting at the Chamblee Civic Center when they said that a major reason for the change was so that jets wouldn’t have to get special air traffic clearance to fly lower than the current 8,000 feet above sea level after the change was instituted.
So Bergen isn’t exactly lying, but she sure ain’t telling “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Bergen, or the people who instructed her to say what she said, is engaged in attempting to give people the wrong impression.
You might also want to ask why the FAA says that the drastic revision of Atlanta airspace is being made at this time due to the greatly increased traffic congestion caused by the addition [at Hartsfield-Jackson] of the fifth runway, yet according to FAA’s carefully orchestrated environmental study prior to the final 3,000 foot extension of the 5th runway showed a “finding of no significant impact” connected with the runway extension.
How is could this be possible? Simple. The FAA study only looked at the environmental impact of a 3,000 foot extension of the existing 5,000 foot runway, rather than the environmental impact of a full 8,000 foot runway with larger jets!
Larry Foster