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Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Steven Heywood/News staff
A Sea King helicopter with 443 Squadron out of the Victoria International Airport flies over Sidney during this summer’s 100th anniversary of the local fire department. Airport neighbours say their training schedule has raised concerns over noise and safety.
Helicopter noise unavoidable at airport Sea King training flights exempt from noise rules under federal government regulations Steven Heywood News staff
Flight crews with the 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron at the Victoria airport put in around 2,000 hours of training time every year and while most of their work is done far away from residential
neighbourhoods, there are noise complaints. It comes with the territory, says Major Dale Arndt, operations officer for the squadron. He said 90 per cent of their training flights are done away from people’s homes, often over the water and away from the air-
port proper. Yet, he said there have been close to a dozen formal complaints made this year about the noise from their Sea King helicopters. That’s down a bit from last year, when Arndt said there were closer to 15 complaints made. Those are formal complaints,
not phone calls after which the caller does not go any further. In recent weeks, the Peninsula News Review has received phone calls and emails from residents angry about the noise from what they call low-flying helicopters. Christine Bender, who lives on Amherst Avenue, is aware she
bought her home near the airport and does expect a certain amount of noise. She says, however, that over the last 20 years aircraft traffic has increased — and so has the noise. Please see: Squadron needs to train, page 4