QZ: A few cranky people risk making air travel costlier and more polluting for all
 

Eli Dourado, a researcher at the libertarian Mercatus Center, recently examined the public records of noise complaints for American airports and came to a disturbing conclusion.

“We are letting crazy people make our airport noise policy,” is one way he summarized his findings.

Dourado and his co-author on a new study of airport noise complaints found that most of the calls are coming from a small group of people who are unusually irritated by what they’re hearing, suggesting that costly decisions about noise mitigation—which can ultimately increase the cost of flying—may be driven by the complaints of a select few.

http://qz.com/811270/us-airport-nois...-for-everyone/

When did being sensitive to loud noises become "crazy"?

It seems to me a bit crazy to move next to an airport and then complain about it. :)

Agreed. Unless the airport was built after you moved, you should not be complaining. Property values near airports are lower for a reason.

Out of 4,800 noise complaints made against DIA last year, 96% came from four people. Yes, the single-digit four. 3,500 complaints came from one person, who lives 30 miles away from the airport.

http://www.9news.com/entertainment/t...ople/337638418

And that's the crux of the issue - if officials only looked at the number of complaints and took action based on that, they'd miss the fact that it's orders of magnitude fewer people complaining about the airport than using and benefitting from it.