Jan. 13--Residential noise complaints involving jets at O'Hare International Airport hit a record in 2013, which included a spike in objections just after a new runway opened in the fall, according to a new city report.
The noise complaints rose 36 percent from October to November, to 4,763. That is the first full month after flight patterns were changed at O'Hare in mid-October to incorporate a fourth east-west runway, according to data compiled by the Chicago Department of Aviation.
A total of 24,847 complaints were filed between January and November -- more than for any full year on record since Chicago installed noise-monitoring devices in 1996, said Jeffrey Jackson, an aviation planner at Landrum & Brown, which provides consulting services to the aviation department.
"It does look like, for the year, we will have the largest number of complaints we've ever had,'' Jackson said at a meeting Friday of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.
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