A federal judge refused Tuesday to order an injunction to stop fighter jets from practicing aircraft carrier landings at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington after neighbors complained of the noise.
Residents of neighboring Coupeville complained that the Navy’s decision last year to resume flights of the EA-18G Growler aircraft, after stopping them in 2013, was harmful to their health because of the loud noise, The Seattle Times reported.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly said Tuesday that the group of residents failed to show that overflights by the Navy’s newest electronic-warfare aircraft were worse than predicted in a 2005 environmental assessment of the flights’ impacts.
The group, calling themselves the Citizens of the Ebey’s Reserve for a Healthy, Safe and Peaceful Environment, first sued in 2013 but the case was stayed after the Navy agreed to temporarily suspend landings.
When the Navy resumed flights in 2014, the group sought an injunction.
According to court documents, the Navy has been flying as many as 9,000 carrier-landing practices a year in the area, almost one-third more than predicted in the 2005 environmental assessment, The Seattle Times reported.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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