Weather causes jet distractions

Jace Radke

Monday, Aug. 10, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

Blame it on El Nino.

Some Green Valley residents say they are getting edgy about all the noise associated with a recent change in McCarran International Airport flight paths.

The neighborhood around Wildhorse Golf Course off Green Valley Parkway is particularly affected.

"I've lived here eight years and planes have never flown over my house," said Karen Walker, who lives on La Mesa Drive. "Now the pattern has changed and we want to know why."

So Walker and her neighbors put in calls to airport officials as well as Henderson City Council members to get some answers.

What they discovered is the flight pattern change is being attributed to the recent thunderstorms and wet weather the Las Vegas Valley has been experiencing.

"We have a problem every year at about this time," said airport spokesman Jacob Snow. "We are in a monsoonal flow with winds out of the east. In order to keep passengers safe, pilots have to follow the current flight path which takes them over Green Valley.

As a result, airport officials have found themselves fielding numerous complaint calls.

"We don't like to be in this flow and when the weather drys out we can go back to normal," Snow said.

Until the weather flow changes, however, residents in Green Valley will have to deal with the inconvenience of some added noise.

"We were cleaning our backyard and we couldn't even hear what our neighbor was trying to tell us over the fence because of the planes," Walker said. "For years people have bought homes in Green Valley because it's quiet, but now it is so loud.

"We just want it to go back to the way it was."

Until then Snow has found one bright spot in the flight path change.

"At least it's a break for the people in the west who are normally under the flight path," Snow said.