New flight patterns at O'Hare International Airport designed to reduce the possibility of mid-air collisions has had an undesired effect. Neighbors in nearby Bensenville say the noise is making their lives miserable.
It all started last October when the newest runway was finished and neighbors say the planes started skimming the trees in their backyards.
"Somebody just turned our street ... our lovely Hillside Street ... into a hell street," resident Kinga Biernat said.
The neighbors have started logging hundreds of flights over their homes, and say new planes pass by nearly every minute of the day.
"You have to go into the basement to watch TV," Bensonville resident Ron Marinello said.
Mary Rose Matheson says her family has stopped using their backyard altogether because of the noise and it's also encroaching on her work as a school teacher.
"My daughter is almost 2 and she wakes up two to three times a night crying," Matheson said. "The kids even say, 'Oh Miss Matheson you look tired today,' and I think it's because I'm not sleeping during the night due to the flight patterns."
Biernat says her daughter finds it hard to sleep at night and has been dozing off in class.
"She was a great student before. She's trying really hard right how, but if you have this noise constantly, how can she do her homework?" Biernat said.
Village president Frank Soto met with O'Hare's Noise Compatibility Commission Friday, and says there are immediate issues they're trying to hammer out.
"The elevation of the planes that they fly in could be higher than they are now. Sometimes they don't take off as quickly as they can. How dated are the older planes, they should be recycled out of the fleet," Soto said.
But residents say time is short and their property value is diminishing. They're open to being moved from their homes at the federal government's expense.
