Cold Weather and Winds Send Planes Over College

The recent roar of jet airplanes over Cambridge is due to icy Canadian gusts that are forcing air traffic controllers at Logan airport to divert the take-off pattern of these planes, an administrator at Massport said yesterday.

The jet airplanes must be directed over Cambridge so they can take-off directly into the wind. David Nsabimana, a noise monitor and technician with Massport, said yesterday. They will continue on their present pattern until the frigid, 48-knot wind shifts or subsides, he said.

David Richard, an aviation planning specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the jets must fly into the wind to get the "lift" they need for take-off.

Get the Lift

"If a pilot does not get the required lift he'll have to abort the take-off and if he's short on pavement he could run into some real problems," Richard said.

Normally during this time of year the wind blows from the Northeast, Rickard said, adding that the Northwest wind forces controllers to send planes over Revere, Medford, and Somerville as well as Cambridge.

Rickard said Massport reviewed the alternate runway system with citizens from around the Cambridge area about seven years ago.

Flip Flop

Nsabimana said he has seen jets turn over attempting to take-off heading in a direction other than directly into the wind.

Massport received over 80 calls of complaint from residents in the Cambridge area on Thursday. Nsabimana said.

"Now that King is in office and lives in Winthrop, he's sending planes over Cambridge." Jean Fribely, a psychotherapist at Cambridge Mental Health Associates, said.

James Weinrich, a tutor at Mather House and one of the many Cambridge residents bothered by the noise of the jet engines, said yesterday the jets are "really irritating" and put him off his sleeping schedule.

Louise Hom '82 said yesterday the noise from the jets really does not bother her at all. "I live near the San Francisco Airport and so the noise sounds a bit homelike," Hom said.

Weinrich said that although he has lost a considerable amount of sleep because of the jets, he has not filed an official complaint with Logan Airport because "people in East Boston must suffer through the noise for nearly the entire year--so the middle class gets its way most of the time."