New flight paths cause turbulence for Phoenix neighborhoods

PHOENIX (AP) - Steve Dreiseszun can't sit in his backyard or read a story to his son without a sense of dread.

For the past several months, he and other residents in a historic Phoenix neighborhood have been jolted - sometimes out of sleep - by the sound of airplanes flying just above them.

The noise increase has been going on since mid-September, when the Federal Aviation Administration implemented new satellite-based arrival and departure paths out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The new paths are part of the FAA's NextGen program, which is geared toward reducing fuel emissions and boosting air space capacity.

Congress passed the program in 2003, and the agency has already spent more than $5 billion on developing it at major U.S. airports.