Faa Contradicts Jetport’s Reason For Noise

A federal aviation official on Tuesday contradicted statements by the director of the Portland International Jetport and other officials at the airport that problems with a federal radar system could have contributed to noise complaints by forcing airliners to fly over residential neighborhoods. There have been no radar outages that changed the direction airplanes took off and landed at the Portland Jetport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said Tuesday. While the FAA’s nearest air traffic radar in Cumberland shut down this summer for scheduled maintenance and experienced several unplanned interruptions, the Jetport was covered by three other radar sites and there was no effect on airport operations, Peters said. “It’s not complicated, it really isn’t,” Peters said.