When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in Vermont in April 2020, it forced Burlington and Winooski residents to self-isolate. And some who began working from home within the flight path of the F-35s became acquainted with a new experience.
“During the beginning of lockdown and the stay-at-home order was my first experience with them. They literally woke me up from a sound sleep, it was so incredibly loud,” said Winooski resident Suzanne Blain.
She said she doesn’t remember hearing the jets before that moment — likely because they flew over her house while she was at work.
Data from the Vermont National Guard indicates that Blain wasn’t alone in her awakening to the F-35s just as the pandemic began. Noise complaints spiked in the month of April, just after Gov. Phil Scott instituted a stay-at-home order on March 25. Since then, noise complaints have remained high, as Burlington and Winooski-area residents have continued isolating for almost a year and a half, and as the F-35s flights have become more frequent as their training schedules have increased.
The F-35, conceived as a versatile, stealthy next-generation fighter plane, is a replacement for the F-16s that date back to 1976. It’s a far more complex and versatile fighter jet, and it is also far louder. F-35s are known to reach up to 115 decibels of noise.
The noise reports confirm warnings from officials that the combination of pandemic-induced home isolation with the roar of F-35 fighter jets would cause additional stress for residents in an already uncertain time. Burlington city councilors asked the governor and congressional delegation to try to halt the flights during the pandemic. The governor denied that request.
The F-35 jets arrived in Burlington in late September 2019, and in the early months, complaints about their presence were lower than expected, the Guard said at the time. According to data provided by the Guard, there were three complaints in September, 19 in October, 25 in November and 17 in December — totaling 84 complaints from 46 unique callers in 2019.
In January, there were 46 complaints from 25 unique callers. For February, the jets were away on a training mission and only three complaints were recorded. For March, which included some night flying, 15 complaints were recorded.
April 2020 is when the complaints soared. The Guard took in 134 complaints from 83 unique callers. Since then, complaints have remained high. The largest number of complaints was recorded in September 2020 — 245 complaints from 100 unique callers. That month had about a week’s worth of night flights.
The Guard closed out 2020 with 991 total complaints from 312 callers. In four months, 2021 had brought 432 complaints as of April 20 from 148 unique callers.
These totals go far beyond the noise complaints the Guard received when the former fleet of much quieter F-16s were stationed at Burlington International airport. The Guard reported 195 complaints in 2015, 152 in 2016, 20 in 2017 and only one in 2018.
‘Mission-ready’
Col. David Shevchik Jr., commander of the Vermont Air National Guard Air 158th Fighter Wing, said the fact that people have spent the last 14 months at home is a “contributing factor” to the high number of complaints in 2020 and 2021.
He also said the fighter wing has increased its flight schedules in the past year as it came into its full 20-jet capacity. For example, when complaints spiked in April 2020, flights had doubled from the previous month (44 in March, 138 in April). The Guard slowly added jets to its fleet and came into full capacity about a year after the first jet landed.
“We really haven’t had an opportunity, because folks have been home, to have a baseline of what it’s like when people are in their traditional working environments,” Shevchik said.
“We remain committed to being good neighbors and stewards,” he said. “We do everything in our power to mitigate noise as much as possible and then certainly to respond when people do call and complain. We stay engaged with the community members.”
In April 2020, Burlington City Council members tried to halt the F-35 training flights during the pandemic, saying they wanted to alleviate stress among residents who were transitioning to at-home work and to mobilize the Guard to focus solely on the state’s Covid-19 response. They voted 11-1 to send a letter to the governor and the state’s congressional delegation, asking them “to do everything in their power to halt the F-35 aircrafts’ training flights.”
A spokesperson for Scott said he would not ask that the F-35s be grounded because the “flights are a federal mission important to our country’s national security.” At the time, Shevchik said the Guard would continue to keep the F-35s mission-ready while simultaneously responding to the state’s Covid-19 needs. Since the pandemic began, Shevchik said, the Guard has done thousands of contact tracing calls, shipped 180,000 Covid-19 testing kits and has so far administered 14,000 vaccines.
“We absolutely have to still remain flying,” Shevchik said. He said the F-35s couldn’t have been grounded during the pandemic because the 158th Fighter Wing is federally mandated to be a mission-ready fleet, which requires constant training.
City Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District, said F-35 complaints from residents have gone up during the pandemic. Hanson has always opposed the F-35s and sponsored the resolution asking that the flights cease during Covid-19. He said he thinks the decision to keep flying the jets through the pandemic was particularly irresponsible.
“These planes are extremely loud, and especially during a pandemic when so many people are trying to work from home, so many people are facing added stress and burden of the pandemic, it’s just wildly inappropriate,” he said.
‘Leaf blower next to your head’
Suzanne Blain, the Winooski resident, had a baby girl during the summer and is concerned about how the jets might damage her hearing. The Blains no longer open their windows, trying to block some of the F-35s’ roar.
“It’s like a leaf blower next to your head,” Blain said. “I either have to choose between covering my baby’s ears when we’re on a walk when these are going by, or my ears. So I get hearing damage or she does.”
Jean Szilva has lived in Winooski since 1995 and said she’s noticed that the jets have become more frequent over the past year and a half. As a retired family practice doctor, she’s also concerned about how the F-35s are affecting the health of the residents who live beneath them, both in terms of hearing loss and the impact of stress.
“Stress is really, really harmful to you,” Szila said. “The increased stress proteins that are produced really wreak havoc on you over time. Then they cause high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke, psychological problems. So, just having the F-35s, pandemic or no pandemic, I’m sure causes this.”
When New North End resident Deb Bouton hears the F-35s fly overhead, sometimes she’ll call Mayor Miro Weinberger’s office to make sure he hears them too. She has the number saved on speed dial, and holds her phone up in the air.
“I just wanted them to know,” Bouton said. “And I’ve told him, I said, there are many things you’ve done so right. I will never forgive him for not speaking up for the residents about this.”
Bouton said she hears the jets much more frequently since the pandemic began, and she began working from home. She used to frequently call the Vermont National Guard to complain about the “visceral” reaction the roar of the jets causes for her.
Now, “I don’t even bother calling because I don’t know what the point is, you know. I would call every time if I thought it would do any good,” Bouton said. “But I think there’s been a lot of resignation.”
Major J. Scott Detweiler, the Guard’s public affairs officer, said the phone number used for complaints will change on May 1. The new number is 802-660-5379.
Correction: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect phone number for complaints.
