Did anyone hear a really loud airplane?

October 21st, 2009 · 21 Comments

Chris wanted us to ask if anyone else heard the extremely loud airplane flying over their house early Tuesday morning in NW Greenwood/East Crown Hill:

Just want to check if our neighbors heard the same thing. Were you guys awakened by a jetliner that seemed to be flying at a VERY low altitude at 3:40 a.m. today? It woke us both up with the roar of the engines and got the dog REALLY wound up. It literally sounded like a train a block away!

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21 responses so far ↓

1 Don // Oct 21, 2009 at 10:47 am

We live in Blue Ridge. The plane woke up my wife, both dogs, and myself.
2 John // Oct 21, 2009 at 11:11 am

I did indeed. I actually thought there were two of them?
3 gw // Oct 21, 2009 at 11:27 am

Yes! We heard it in greenwood! Husband woke up asking what that noise was and I said an airplane, but thinking back, it was really loud to actually have woken us up.
4 john walker // Oct 21, 2009 at 12:04 pm

duck and cover!
5 Chris // Oct 21, 2009 at 12:30 pm

I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I really did think the jet — once it passed — was going to end up in a smoking hole just south of 85th.
6 Iron City Mike // Oct 21, 2009 at 12:41 pm

slept like a baby.
7 CHMOM // Oct 21, 2009 at 2:16 pm

Yes, I was using the bathroom at the time, it was crazy loud. I just saw this post and remembered the noise.
8 SPG // Oct 21, 2009 at 2:29 pm

Has anyone who was up and heard it contacted the FAA?
If it was as low as you think then they’ll like to have a word with the pilot. An exact time that it went over would be helpful since I doubt that anyone wrote down the tail number.
9 Chris // Oct 21, 2009 at 2:37 pm

I’ve filed complaints with the Port of Seattle aircraft noise abatement office and with King County Airport — just in case the jet was enroute to Boeing Field. Not surprisingly, neither have acknowledged the complaint.
10 Chris // Oct 21, 2009 at 2:38 pm

FAA won’t accept noise complaints. They direct people to the local airports.
11 SPG // Oct 21, 2009 at 2:59 pm

No, they’d be less concerned with the noise than with the jet flying low or outside of it’s flight path. The noise is only a by product of the other potentially dangerous action.
12 Someone // Oct 21, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Don’t know if it’s related or not but I saw that giant 787 parts hauler (modified 747) take off from Boeing field right before lunch today. Maybe the noisy jet was this thing on approach to Boeing Field early this morning?
13 Julia // Oct 21, 2009 at 4:35 pm

Fedex used to fly real low at about 5am
14 Mina & Co. // Oct 21, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Yep - I heard it too. Seemed awfully loud. I half-way expected to hear a crash shortly thereafter.
15 Melissa Jilk // Oct 21, 2009 at 6:33 pm

I live in Loyal Heights and I heard it, too… only I was awake already.
16 anotherneighbor // Oct 21, 2009 at 6:39 pm

Yup, I heard it too. I was already awake, but it did sound low..
17 SleepingBeauty // Oct 21, 2009 at 7:48 pm

You guys were all up at 3:40 in the morning? It sounds like Sleepless in Seattle …
18 Paul // Oct 21, 2009 at 8:42 pm

Do you think it had something to do with the fact that there was a really thick blanket of fog over the area that morning. Fogs’ denser air tends to transmit sound better (might be a question for Cliff Mass) thus making the airplane sound louder even if it wasn’t actually flying lower.
19 chris prosser // Oct 21, 2009 at 10:43 pm

Hey Folks,

I’m a pilot and I fly out of Boeing Field. I only fly a wee little plane, but I’m not aware of anything that would have changed things recently.

But I found a thread on another forum for people who live in Magnolia and a pilot of big iron wrote in with his ideas of what is going on. Essentially there is an alternate approach, but it doesn’t really seem to be used. Everyone who is bothered should report the noise to BFI and Seatac so that the FAA makes it the preferred approach.

http://www.magnoliavoice.com/2009/09/03/airplane-noise-on-the-rise/

–chris
20 Dennis Noson // Oct 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

The Port has a web site where individual flight tracks, second by second, can be followed, including altitute and type of aircraft. At 3:51am on Oct. 21, the morning’s inbound UPS flight traversed north Seattle, east to west at about 145th St, and turned south to Boeing Field by 3:53. Altitude was 2,000 feet.

I have noticed this flight & the FedEx flight numerous times. Call the Port’s noise office, 787-5393 or you can use the WebTrak flight ID tag to report it on the Port’s site: http://www32.webtrak-lochard.com/WebTrak/sea … no spaces in that link.
–Dennis
PS There was an Alaska flight at 3:15am at 4,000 ft; not likely as the culprit.
PPS Density of fog as part of an inversion can bend sound paths and confine noise to the surface, somewhat. Dr. Mass knows weather. Call me for acoustics: 270-8910, BRC Acoustics.
21 Chris // Oct 24, 2009 at 10:37 am

sounds like the UPS flight is the culprit. 2,000 feet? That’s awfully low this far from Boeing Field!