AKROTIRI residents complaining about noise levels of military aircraft are unlikely to be able to pressure the British bases, either into giving them compensation or putting an end to the noise, according to an aircraft expert who was once an RAF pilot stationed in Cyprus.
Residents of Akrotiri village said on Saturday they would take measures against the bases, whose aircraft they claim are noisy, with vibrations allegedly damaging their homes.
The complaints have increased since the arrival of the famous Red Arrows, which will be flying three times a day during their six-week training period. The issue comes at a time when the EU has censured Cyprus for failing to ban old Russian charter planes that breach Community noise level rules.
“Military planes are allowed to be as noisy as they want according to the law, because they have engines which are designed to make them go very fast and accelerate quickly,” said David Learmount, the safety and operations editor of Flight International magazine.
Learmount said military planes, unlike modern civilian aircraft, were not designed primarily with economy in mind. Military performance is the first requirement for military planes, he said.
“The old Russian freighters, like an old Boeing freighter, have got very old engines with old-fashioned technology, which makes them noisy and inefficient, so there are a whole load of aeroplane types not allowed to fly in Europe or the US,” he added.
He said that unless governments specifically allowed them, these planes were subject to a global ban.
“But with military planes it doesn’t matter which nationality they are, all are pretty damn noisy because they don’t have to be quiet; performance is what it’s all about for a military aircraft,” he said.
Learmount said the Red Arrows used Hawk jets, an advanced trainer, which can also be used as a light strike aircraft by dropping small munitions to aid troops on the ground and harrying the enemy from the air.
The Hawk is not a fully-fledged fighter plane, but a high performance trainer meant for training pilots as a last stage before going on operational squadrons.
But Learmount dismissed any notion that the Red Arrows could cause either serious noise pollution, or damage to homes, though he admitted that in the UK, farmers who lived close to military bases could claim compensation if they could prove their livestock had been affected .
“If it’s sudden, it tends to frighten cattle and sheep. It can affect milk yields, sheep can get injured by running,” he said. “They can’t really damage homes but they can damage sleep. Just one Hawk is not noisy. The Russian freighter is very much noisier, but all of the Hawks together, which are around 10 or 12… when they flash past the show is spectacular.
“It’s designed to be spectacular and they appear very rapidly suddenly in some parts of their manoeuvres. It can be upsetting for people and that’s easy to understand. It’s not a matter of right and wrong. It’s a matter of personal opinion. It’s perfectly understandable why people who live near aerodromes regret the amount of noise.”
However, Learmount said that from his own experience of aircraft, and as an RAF transport pilot stationed in Akrotiri in the early seventies, he did not believe any of the aircraft there could cause structural damage to homes.
“There is no way they do that. They must be talking about shanty-town construction because the vibration is just not that bad. It really isn’t. The sound of a single F15 taking off in full reheat is as noisy as the entire Red Arrows squadron. I think they are pushing their luck,” he said.
Learmount said no one was going to listen to the residents in any case, as the military had the right to carry out the flights. He also said in the case of Akrotiri the airfield was right out on the end of the peninsula. “It’s about as remote as an airfield could reasonably be, and if you approach the runway from either end, your approach is not entirely over the sea but it is over bases area land,” he said.
When he was based at Akrotiri there were many more aircraft coming and going than today, he said.
“They used to have Lightenings based there and a pair of them took off at 7am exactly every day. These are very powerful and noisy. This happened every day and we never had complaints,” he said. In addition there were also two squadrons of Falcons “that make a noise like Concorde”.
“Since that time you have fighters and strike aircraft deploying from time to time to do exercises at Akrotiri but no squadrons based there, whereas once upon a time they were based there and some of the noisiest aircraft in the world lived there,” he said.
“I think it’s because it’s got so much quieter that when they do come in, the noise upsets people because they’ve got used to relative peace and quiet.”
