Airport, FAA, Created Dangerous Overhead Flight Routes Without Public Input

October 2026:

(Note from Doug Markham): I Have Long Observed The Nashville International Airport, Airport Authority, and Federal Aviation Administration Purposely Fly Thousands of Giant Passenger and Cargo Jets Every Month Over The Same Unfortunate Homes, Whose Residents Were Never Given A Chance To Defend Themselves From Nonstop, Around-The-Clock Flights. Please Read the Article Below. It Is Long, But It Needs To Be In Order To Understand That Never-Ending Flights Aren’t Anything To Simply Dismiss Because They Are Loud.

This is a fairly complicated issue, but it affects tens of thousands of lives in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and may affect many more lives than any of us know. I’ don’t know everything that has happened behind closed doors, but I do know those doors were closed while plans were made to ambush targeted areas with eventually millions of low-flying jets and without compensation for destroyed homes. Make sure to read the captions that follow the photos, screenshots, and videos. Make sure to understand Ultra Fine Particles. You don’t have to live right below endless flights to get sick, or worse, from what the FAA and Nashville Airport have done to selected communities.

I purchased this website for the foreseeable future. I don’t make money from it and never will. I put it together because I know what bad people are willing to do to good people for their benefit. I hope in time many good people will find this website and work to free themselves from the greed of this airport and its board, the BS of the FAA (and its laziness), and the failure of men and women you trusted to provide you with honest assessments of what is happening in your community. –Doug Markham

By Doug Markham (dougmarkham6@gmail.com)

It is important to understand who manages the ground operations of Nashville’s Airport, and who directs air traffic. It is also vital to understand that each of these entities play off the other and makes it difficult for citizens to resolve issues that harm communities with disturbingly low airplane flights, offensive noise, and deadly pollutants.

If you spend enough time asking for help and explanations, both will claim it is the other’s fault.

Before moving on, I want to note that homeowners are not being treated rottenly because “Nashville is a big city now,” as I see claimed on neighborhood websites, or by politicians using “the big city” excuse as a quick way to dismiss the issue and repeat FAA or airport talking points.

I hope you understand as you read down this page why I believe the Nashville Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration are BOTH responsible for the destructive intrusion of selected neighborhoods with endless overhead flights and dangerous emissions that poison the air around us. Both know how dangerous this is. I will repeat this down the page.

The constant noise above our homes has long been proven medically detrimental to health, but jet exhaust concentrated over the same homes is frighteningly dangerous. What I discovered during a recent Internet search confirmed most everything I have learned about the Nashville Airport and FAA over the last six years. I had long become aware these two entities were at fault for targeting homes in selected neighborhoods with nonstop jet travel, but I didn’t know to what extreme thousands of jets were dumping on us. Most of my research is based on observation and communications with the airport and FAA, but the following is from ChatGPT. Everything I have learned tells me is to believe that the FAA and the Nashville Airport won’t hesitate to abuse your home, families, or friends:

“When jet engines burn commercial aviation fuel at high temperatures–they emit TRILLIONS of microscopic, chemically complex particles…Unlike standard air pollutants (like smoke or dust), these ultra fine particles (UFPs) are so incredibly small that they bypass the human respiratory system’s natural filters. They penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream directly, and can migrate into organs and the central nervous system.”

Even worse, not even the Environmental Protection Agency can tell us to what extent UFPs damage the health of humans; it is obvious that neither the airport nor the Federal Aviation Administration cares. This is, after all, an EPA issue, according to the FAA and airport, both of which–with the help of our law makers who refuse to intervene on our behalf–work together to duck serious issues.

The airport’s previous managers and, more recently, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), have met regularly with the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority since the early 1970s. This board has for decades approved various ground operations. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration flight controllers determine the overhead routes of passenger and cargo planes, along with the ever increasing volume of large private jets.

Flight controllers historically depended on sharp minds and ground-based radar to manage flights, but these days satellite guidance is predominantly utilized to help direct hundreds of thousands of airplanes into and out of Nashville. I don’t know how much control FAA flight controllers actually have now, but I’m guessing not near as much as in days past. Approximately 700 passenger jets either depart or arrive daily to the Nashville airport as of late 2026 or almost 300,000 over the same homes.

Air traffic is projected to increase from 27.8 million passengers a year to 40 million in just over a decade. This sounds great for the economy, unless you live under this growth and endure the reality of the airport and the FAA’s mischievously created air traffic routes that the FAA has deemed permanent, although nobody elected anyone from that agency to tell us what is permanent and what is not. If you live under these flights the future of destructive jets the noise and airplane exhaust will become even more egregious.

Managing a growing metropolis comes with much responsibility, which includes decisions to expand an airport from regional size to international size. The Nashville Airport, Airport Authority, and the FAA chose to extend and/or revamp runways that helped increase air traffic in Nashville. While the FAA manages flights, it approves runway extensions, layouts, or realignments. Apparently these entities also chose not to compensate homeowners despite its billions of dollars to expand the airport and destroy selected homes.

Anyone who drives Interstate 40 in Nashville or who is frequent air traveler can see the airport’s expansion in real time as it works through various building phases on its way to supersize. This airport has seemingly become more important than the city itself. Sometimes I wonder if state capitol will eventually be moved inside this airport. After all, as you will read below, the state has taken control of the airport’s governing body.

With the advent of satellite technology, the FAA decided that that airplane routes should be determined by wind direction, which might have been reasonable had the agency not abused the same homeowners with this lazy form of air-traffic management. Wind direction is among main reasons that unlucky residents across America have nicknamed the continuous flow through narrow corridors as superhighways of the sky. FAA controllers pound unfortunate homes with jet noise and pollutants if the wind is 1 mph or if it is 25 mph.

Today’s huge jets must be piloted nose first on arrival or departure in order to achieve lift, says the FAA. This headwind, the agency claims, also helps shorten the needed length of a runway for arrival since breaking power isn’t as demanding.

I don’t trust much of what the FAA claims these days as I strongly doubt a mild wind has much impact on modern jets. Rather, I believe the FAA has weaponized wind direction which–in turn–has decimated the quality of life for homeowners in areas selected by the FAA and the Nashville Airport to bear the brunt of satellite guidance.

If you pay close attention you will notice often that wind direction doesn’t matter nearly as much as the FAA claims. If you pay even closer attention you will see the same homeowners being blasted by aircraft when the wind is from the north also get the same amount of traffic from when it is primarily from the east or west–and often even from the south; from yet airplanes guided into Nashville arrive to the same parallel runways. I can’t see how lift has an anything to do with this guidance? (Doug Note: If you want to check this statement for accuracy, research the wind direction on October 19, 2026. This is a random date as there have been many just like it. After a Saturday and Sunday filled with flights over the same homes in Tusculum, the wind shifted solidly and steadily south, but the airplanes kept coming over the same homes. The wind was 180 degrees opposite from two previous days. The importance of wind direction is an abused and weak FAA and airport excuse.)

Oddly, the one runway that has the greatest amount of east and west facing surface is ignored because the airport, with FAA approval, determined it should be used for occasional military flights or during crosswinds. I’m confident that the amount of money to be made by using the parallel runways outweighed concerns for homeowners ambushed by FAA and Airport decisions.

The FAA is a federal agency funded through our U.S. Congress with taxpayer dollars and fees placed on airline tickets (many fee-paying passengers live in Middle Tennessee, so yes, residents of Nashville get taxed regardless of what the airport claims). Nashville is not the only city to have been attacked by government flight controllers or, frankly, our Congress that has continued to fund FAA’s satellite guidance despite this agency’s well known mistreatment of American homeowners. This too is discussed in more detail down below.

Several cities have sued the FAA for destroying the peace and healthy air around them, but not Nashville. Some cities have met with with success, others were unable to get past the walls erected to protect the FAA or local airports. One particularly well-known conclusion ended at the appeals level where residents managed to get their case in front of a Washington, D.C. federal court. Colorado plaintiffs were told that they had “no legal standing” without the courtesy of having their arguments heard by a judge. In other words, those unhappy citizens–who had spent a lot of money to have a voice in their daily lives– were dismissed out of hand.

It is frustrating to have control of our property and health dictated by the FAA, an arrogant federal agency if there ever was one. Why are Americans having to go to court to get back what should never have been taken from them, or to protect themselves from future health issues from its own government!

It is also humiliating to have our property and health jeopardized by politicians and airport board authorities that often seem to include at least one business professional among its members. In Nashville a well known real estate developer, responsible for many unattractive high rises that have helped destroy the unique aura of Music City, was in the mix of private negotiations with the Elon Musk’ Boring Company to build the Music City Loop. Once citizens found out about this plan they opposed it, as did the Metro Nashville Council, but with similar disregard for homeowners stressed by endless jets, pubic concerns were disregarded. Construction began, free of taxpayer dollars, according to Tennessee’s lame-duck governor.

Staying on that topic, The FAA is a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The top FAA Administrator is not elected. He is appointed by our President then confirmed by our U.S. Senate. The main FAA headquarters is located in Washington DC, but regional FAA offices exist across the nation.

The closest regional FAA office to Nashville is in Atlanta. I practically begged the regional director for traffic route changes dating back to the early 2020s, but the Atlanta director told me Nashville is a big city now and the public demanded more air travel.

It didn’t bother this top-level FAA executive that 99.9 percent of that public lived outside of the FAA’s bad decisions that decimated my home along with the homes of my neighbors (watch the video at the bottom of this page). The councilwomen who represents Crieve Hall and the one who represents Tusculum were no better. FAA decisions are final, said the Crieve Hall councilwoman, after I sent her an email requesting a public meeting to discuss air traffic some four or five years ago. Nothing she could do about it; not even the governor could, she stressed. From what I have learned about this governor I doubt he would have intervened, but Crieve Hall’s representative–a real estate agent–wasn’t going to find out.

The councilwoman representing the Tusculum area never responded to repeated requests for help. I expect she knew what was coming, just as I expect Crieve Hall’s councilwoman did. I give them–and many other councilmen and past mayors–an assist toward the abuse of selected homes in unlucky neighborhoods. I asked one of Nashville’s recent mayors through the city’s portal for a meeting, too, but never heard a word. As The FAA regional director in Atlanta ignored my invite, as I expected he would.

I had asked him to come visit me after he informed my congressman that I (and consequently my neighbors) lived outside any of the FAA’s designated “noise impact” areas. These zones supposedly provide homeowners a defense against jet noise. Soundproofing would be an example of mitigation, but so would purchasing targeted homes inside these now excessively obnoxious zones.The method used to determine impact zones is controversial because it is designed to favor the FAA and local airports. More about how the FAA uses “averaging” as a way to tell our elected representatives that the noise and pollutants over our heads are no different than ever.

Understand, the FAA can utilize noise impact designations to make homeowners appear too ignorant to know what is destructively loud and dangerous–I have long called these repeated, now around-the-clock flights, a sin against people chosen as collateral damage by the airport and the FAA. After watching the sky fill with more jets and measuring the roar over my home with a sound meter, I decided noise impact areas protect the FAA more than it does homeowners.

Here is another ChatGPT quote to digest, especially for anyone who thinks noise is the only factor affecting neighborhoods:

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledges that aircraft emit high concentrations of ultrafine particles (UFPs) and recognizes their potential for severe health risks, but the exact extent of this damage remains an active area of study and is not yet fully quantified or federally regulated.”

The number of airplanes have more than doubled, maybe tripled since I began pleading for changes. My congressman, at that time, did nothing to intervene but his staff sent me a copy of the letter he received from Atlanta that claimed hundreds of low-flying airplanes directly over my home were outside FAA’s noise impact zones and, therefore, couldn’t possibly be loud. I bet many of you have had similar frustrating and humiliating experiences with the FAA, the airport, and local politicians. He said nothing about ultra fine particles.

The FAA is responsible for hiring flight controllers. These days the controllers primarily utilize satellite technology to guide jet aircraft. Satellite management is why exact flight paths over the same homes are possible. Unfortunately for the chosen losers in this scheme the routes taken are through corridors designed to be much narrower than what existed when controllers depended on radar.

Tusculum is especially hit hard as the airport uses corridors above it for both departing and arriving flights. This never happened until the FAA began using satellite guidance. The noise and pollutants fall on this area day and night 365 days year. The FAA and the airport know this, but they don’t care.

Satellite guidance seems organized, safe, and smart on paper, but those of us living under this skinny overhead highway have been placed inside a dirty and loud passageway that many who live outside of it give no thought to–or worse–tell those living inside it they shouldn’t complain because the airport is good for the economy. Give it time, they say to us, you will become accustomed to the noise.

I doubt anyone who makes such comments have an idea about airplane exhaust, let alone the issues associated with decibel busting jets. Those who actually research the issue should never let those who don’t convince them they are wrong to complain about it, and when necessary, to file lawsuits.

I believe congressmen and the FAA, plus no telling the number of lobbyist and other aviation professionals, were confident that narrow flight corridors would keep opposition voices to a minimum since few people step forward to request airplanes be guided over their homes for the sake of fairness.

I have no doubt this was a part of the overall scheme created in the dark. I doubt one congressman has a home outside Washington directly under the noise and pollutants he or she helped create with a $40 billion investment into the failed NextGen satellite guidance system two decades ago. Our Congress is attempting to add another $30 billion to modernize our skies. The Modernize Skies Act was filed in September 2026 by the same U.S. Missouri Senator who didn’t know the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes during a recent viral congressional oversight hearing where his research was lazy, inaccurate, and embarrassing. This doesn’t give me confidence that his Modern Sky legislation is to everyone’s benefit.

Rather than continuing to address airport infrastructure and make billions for contractors, Congress needs to correct the grotesque mistreatment of home-owning American citizens they helped select as losers in FAA flight guidance. Maybe use discretionary funding to hire flight controllers who can help guide airplanes more fairly with the knowledge that communities filled with families are below the constant stream of screaming and polluting jets.

Many of us made the collateral damage in this FAA and Airport scheme realize we are victims of eminent domain without compensation. The airport makes lots of money, contractors get richer, the airlines are happy, the FAA can get away without hiring as many flight controllers, and all is good if you live in the aviation world outside of the narrow corridors of overhead devastation.

Unlucky homeowners must swallow their pride and the knowledge that our private property has been stolen. We can’t speak naturally anymore to our neighbors, or enjoy our yards aware that poison is filling the air around us with microscopic Ultra Fine Particles (UFPs) and other more easily detected, pollutants.

So far the FAA, the Nashville Airport, and the Airport Authority have gotten away with wreaking havoc on neighborhoods without redress. Neither the FAA nor the Nashville Airport should be allowed to dump on selected communities without telling us how much our air is contaminated or why they failed to hold public meetings to discuss options. Were ANY environmental impact studies conducted in our now harassed neighborhoods?

For those living under the hardships created by Nashville Airport, its governing body, and the FAA, life was better when radar was more widely used to control air traffic. Unfortunately, Congress has allowed the FAA to run amuck over millions of citizens across our country, and the FAA has rudely obliged with its satellite technology, despite being aware of the dangers low-flying jets create. I believe areas of South Nashville are among the most abused communities in America.

Airlines have powerful lobbies, and the FAA (through efforts of associated non-government lobbyists) are well represented in the battle to keep millions of us under the noise and emissions of passenger, cargo, and private jets. It is difficult to defeat this style of gang warfare from powerful sources who got a huge head start on us because they lied to us through omission. Homeowners had no representation at any level–at least not in Middle Tennessee.

The Metropolitan Nashville International Airport has a staff that includes a very well paid CEO, but also numerous other well healed executives. It has a large office building on Briley Parkway a few hundred yards away from Interstate 40 in Donelson, a suburb of Nashville. Despite its proximity to the airport it NEVER appears to have jets flying above it. Much of Donelson is hammered by air traffic, but somehow the airport headquarters located in the appropriately named Corporate Center remains safely tucked away from the danger its management choices poses for so many others.

The FAA frequently guides airplanes below 3,000 feet many miles from the airport as they either depart or arrive over selected neighborhoods. In some areas low altitude flights are now 30 to 60 seconds apart and only about a 1,000 feet above homes. Many days pass where you cannot walk to the mailbox without a jet, or two, ruining even that short experience.

As you scroll down this page look at the typical flight paths and remember that the FAA uses wind direction as an excuse. Notice how far the FAA guides many jets beyond the airport just so it can turn them back into the wind, even when it is barely blowing. Because airplanes are guided by satellite, the FAA claims pilots can slowly fly them in a glide-like pattern, versus the faster approach of radar-guided planes that apparently rely more on throttle usage. Supposedly this saves airlines millions of gallons on gasoline expenditures. But how much gasoline can you save when you fly 60 to 80 miles past the airport so that you can guide huge jets back into a mild wind? Even if this is true, what makes the Nashville Airport, Airport Authority, and FAA think this savings has more value than the homes destroyed by nonstop intrusion of low-flying jets? At what point does manual control return and when does exhaust become most dangerous to concentrated homes?

This is speculation, but I bet these wayward flights aren’t routed low over the homes of airport executives, just like they aren’t routed over the Nashville Airport headquarters office building in Donelson.

The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority is currently a 9-member board with governing powers over the actions of the airport staff, but until recently had 7 members. More about this board as you move down this page. The board meets regularly with the Airport’s CEO. Meetings are public. But for somehow most, if not all, homeowners never knew they would soon be living under hell from above.

I have asked several times for an explanation pertaining to pubic ignorance of fight pattern changes. I usually don’t get an answer and haven’t found evidence online or anywhere else announcing public hearings. Nashville’s government will send letters to homeowners if neighbors want to build a deck in the front yard, but not a word about thousands of low-flying dangerous jets forevermore over your home, or your neighbor’s with that brand new deck.

Off the subject momentarily, but for a reason. Tennessee’s Governor has managed–AGAIN–with the help of the state’s GOP supermajority, to pass legislation and remove the Nashville airport from appointing most members of the airport authority, with the governor and the legislature now making 6 of those appointments and Nashville mayor appointing only 3.

The Tennessee House of Representatives and Senate crafted legislation in April 2026 that included the takeover of airport board appointments in Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and the Tri-Cities, apparently maintaining that the state paid for much of these airports’ needs and thereby should have political control over them. The intent was to strengthen the argument for taking over the jewel of airports in Tennessee, which is the Nashville International Airport. The real reason why? Money of course, as I expect there are politicians, real estate developers, vendors, and other drooling beneficiaries. The same goes for the Music City Loop currently under construction. Tennessee’s lame duck governor supported this project, too.

The first attempt at a takeover, was in May of 2023, but legislation did not include Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, or Tri-City airports, so the Governor and supermajority of GOP politicians changed tactics.

The first person named to this new Nashville board in 2023, which increased members from 7 to 9, was a wealthy developer, the same person the Governor appointed the second time he managed to gain control of the board. A three-judge panel in Davidson County Chancery Court unanimously ruled in October of 2023 that the Airport Authority be returned to its old form. Dismissed board members were reinstated while the state-appointed members were dismissed. Not to be denied, the governor and the legislature came up with its second plan.

As of late 2026, Nashville and Chattanooga have taken the the state to court again, while Memphis, Knoxville, and Tri-Cities–for whatever reason(s)–agreed to let the state have its way. As noted, this is a side issue to overhead flights, but it demonstrates the lust surrounding the ever-expanding Nashville International Airport.

During the four months in 2023, while the state-appointed board had the majority of airport control, it voted to give Nashville Airport Authority power of eminent domain.

Time will tell how the Airport Authority uses this potentially wicked tool. In addition, the temporary board of 2023 gave a $210,000 raise to Doug Kreulen, the Airport’s CEO; it also awarded him a two-year contract extension. Kreulen makes more than $630,000 annually, which helps him enjoy his home outside the corridor of noise and airborne pollutants. If you keep reading down this page you will see a list of dangerous Ultra Fine Particles rarely, if ever, discussed by the local FAA or airport executives.

A pilot and successful person with a long military background, Kreulen has shown no interest in helping affected homeowners. I asked him to help provide relief in the spring of 2023; instead, he sent my request to an underling who told me, more or less, I live in a big city now and that chosen flight paths were the FAA’s fault. Controllers, he said, had no plans to change flight management that placed a bullseye on the rooftops of the same homes hundreds of times a day, thousands a month, tens of thousands a year.

Please read this quote, also found in recent research when I asked ChatGPT if it were true that the airport and the FAA deflect to the other in order to to avoid answering tough questions.

“The finger-pointing you are witnessing between the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority and the FAA is a deliberate, exhausting legal strategy. The airport claims they just build concrete and have no control over the sky, while the FAA claims they are simply managing airspace safely based on the infrastructure the airport gave them.”

This did not come as a surprise as I experienced this buck passing in the early 2020s. Research has just confirmed what I had already learned and what I expect many others have experienced. I am doubtful that the airport executive who told me he spoke to the FAA controllers actually took time to speak with them.

The FAA had several years earlier budgeted $40 billon to update it aging flight control system. The investment was made in a satellite system the FAA dubbed Next Generation Air Transportation System, or “NextGen” for short.

Once NextGen technology reached FAA controllers in Nashville, as the airport continued its huge expansion, chosen communities were doomed. Nextgen was supposed to make so many concerns better for managing air traffic, such as reducing airplane congestion and delays during arrivals and departures, but in 2025 it was shut down because it failed to accomplish most of its goals. Unfortunately, satellite didn’t get replaced, it was absorbed into the FAA’s Airspace Modernization Office, which is located in the agency’s Washington headquarters. More on this down the page.

Low flying aircraft has continued unabated over the same homes, getting worse to the point that some Nashvillains started fighting back. Course Correction has a website and a way to help donate toward legal representation (www.coursecorrection.com). I appreciate the work of those who are fighting the FAA, although I know the airport is just as much a culprit as the FAA in a scheme that degrades homes and disrespects homeowners.

Love for your home and property is as important as financial value, if not considerably more so. Using “inverse condemnation” as a defense of your property–discussed in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution–is an argument homeowners can possibly make for having their lives ripped away without compensation. I have read that this defense is not easy to win as the loss of enjoyment and fear for health may not fall under this amendment’s interpreted protection. The financial devaluation a home may be the best argument for using inverse condemnation. A lawyer specializing in aviation law could tell you more.

In addition, “cumulative noise” can sometimes help homeowners in state courts because of excessive volume of nonstop aircraft flying over the same homes. There is another term–avigation easement (this “g” is correct)–that addresses airports that basically seize property without paying homeowners compensation. These defenses are also for a seasoned attorney to determine how to argue for what seems to be obvious transgressions.

In addition, some states consider nuisance and trespass lawsuits, which is similar to avigation in my layman reading of it.  While the FAA is generally protected from state law claims, airport operators can be sued in state court for nuisance and trespass. These cases argue that the noise and pollution interfere with the right to enjoy personal property. Again, legal advice is advised, but I have no doubt that pollution and noise interferes with my right to enjoy my home and yard.

Today, the Nashville Airport constantly announces more flights to new destinations and each time it does the FAA inundates the same communities with more low-flying traffic. It won’t be long before larger jets begin flying over our homes as the airport intends to add China and other Asian designations that begin or end their long flights through the narrow passageways above our homes.

Another article is posted below that lists the dangerous pollutants that infiltrate the same homes reminiscent of an old horror flick where haunting white mist seeps beneath a door, but in this case we can’t see the mist because it is microscopic. Most homeowners can’t prevent airplane emissions from entering their inside living space, much less from sifting onto their yards, gardens, and patios.

Apparently the Federal Aviation Administration decided it would go along with the airport’s runway changes and likely will allow the airport to extend one of its runways beyond beyond Murfreesboro Road in Donelson so that it can add flights to Asia. How huge will Asia-bound airplanes be? About twice the size of today’s average passenger jet. Will anyone in the areas of collateral damage be safe as these flights are added along with the hundreds of others? These gigantic jets take 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of gasoline to reach their destination.

Meanwhile the ever-expanding airport plans to carry 40 million passengers annually across the country and world between now and the end of the next decade, and then millions more beyond that. You can read how the airport began this plan in its “New Horizon” booklet. It details why specific runways were chosen for the majority of use as the airport planned its expansion.

It would have been respectful had Nashville residents been made aware of the airport’s plans, but instead we weren’t told anything. The Horizon plan is available on the airport website, but how many of us visit this website, especially to study route changes discussed in a booklet that no one knew about: (https://flynashville.com/bna-new-horizon)? New Horizon, as I have come to view it, was more a playbook to make the most money possible than it is a reasonable and safe plan for ALL Nashville residents.

The airport is proud of how large it is becoming with the capability to fill seats in endless loops of jets. This is worth repeating–40 million passengers will pass over the same homes in just over a decade–for those of you who don’t yet understand the severity of the traffic patterns chosen without public input, and apparently with no intentions from the FAA or airport to compensate anyone from an ignored threat to our health.

Many residents of Tusculum, Crieve Hall, and surrounding areas, including those who paid their mortgages off decades ago, have lost one the best assets and pleasures of their lives. Gone are the days of going outside these FAA and airport targeted homes to breath safe air and enjoy the quiet of an early sunrise or the silent beauty of a setting sun.

Some homeowners don’t care that the FAA and politicians made decisions to place their families and friends in harms way, but they should. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes of research to understand the seriousness of this issue. Noise is just one of the problems created when the FAA concentrates jets over the same households.

New Horizon consists of numerous excuses as to why the runways pointing primarily north and south were the viable options for current flight paths.

Communities in and around Crieve Hall are suing the FAA in an effort to get traffic routes returned to fair. It would be my recommendation to also sue the airport, but I am happy to see an effort made to protect Crieve Hall’s private property and health. As earlier noted, it will be a tough court battle to beat either in court, but if honesty counted, there would be no doubt would exist about the outcome:

If you steal from someone, you should pay for it.

Finally, on days when the wind has a northern breeze, watch the local FAA controllers use satellite system to guide airplanes past Brentwood, Franklin, or even Triune way down in Williamson County, and then bring those jets back back 30 or 40 miles to the Davidson County airport in Donelson. This occurs on the north side of Nashville, too, with airplanes busting through parts of Sumner County some 30 or 40 miles away when the wind is from the south. (Two screenshots on this page demonstrate what I’m telling you. This goes on every day, but somehow they never fly over the Airport headquarters in Donelson).

Unfortunately, the once respectable regional airport, that seemed to treat Nashville citizens as neighbors, has become a bloated anaconda strangling life out of selected communities that had no idea they were about to be smothered to death by hateful flight management.

Extremely serious decisions pertaining to thousands of homes in Middle Tennessee and across selected areas of the nation are not new. Other cities have been fighting the FAA for years while our Congress has continued to fund the FAA and support its nationwide attack on selected communities.

While The FAA has made hidden decisions that target the same areas, the Nashville Airport and the Nashville Airport Authority have also jeopardized the lives of people they have never met residing in homes allegedly outside noise impact areas. The airport’s collusion with the FAA should always be remembered for what it did to innocent people, most who don’t yet know how their health has been stolen from them, along with their dignity and peace.

How The FAA Uses Sound Decibel Averaging To Ignore The Damage It Has Helped Create

The FAA’s satellite navigation and federal policy has created a massive legal loophole that leaves many affected homeowners with no financial relief.

Flawed Math: The FAA’s 65 decibel threshold–the level of noise that the FAA claims is the point where constant noise becomes a health issue–relies on a 24-hour mathematical average. So, a neighborhood might experience a massive spike of decibels when a jet roars over, but because there are quiet gaps between flights and fewer flights at 2 a.m., for example, the mathematical average over 24 hours drops below 65 decibels.

The “Categorical Exclusion” Problem: When the FAA rolled out these precise paths (narrow flight corridors)they frequently used fast-track environmental exemptions, claiming that narrowing the paths would not increase the overall regional noise average (Doug Note: The was, and remains, a tremendous falsehood. The math used is a creative way for our government to lie to us). Because the regional average didn’t cross the 65 decibel line, whole swathes of newly affected communities were shut out from both buyouts and soundproofing assistance.

Because buyouts and soundproofing are out of reach for most people living under these satellite corridors residents are bypassed by the system and forced to take alternative action. Many frustrated homeowners simply choose to cut their losses, sell their properties at depressed values, and move away.

Others are pooling resources to sue: This is exactly what is happening right now in places like Crieve Hall and Oak Hill in South Nashville where local neighborhood groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the FAA. They argue that the agency funneled relentless traffic over their homes without a transparent review, subjecting families to sudden spikes of 108 decibels without any offer of insulation or financial recourse.

Doug Note: As stated else where on this page, our Congress has helped erect walls of protection for airports and the FAA that are difficult to defeat. I doubt most anyone making judgement or making laws live under a nonstop stream of gigantic jets. It is time for our Congress to stop pretending the FAA isn’t the monster it helped create. The number of flights is much higher than years ago and this attack over the same homes wasn’t a problem for most of aviation history. Laws should be written to protect homeowners (the ones that help pay their salaries) and force the FAA to alter flight routes or to create more noise impact areas so that abused homeowners are paid for their losses.

To our congressmen I maintain, life on the ground is as important as life in the air.

Ultrafine Particles (UFPs)–Unregulated and DANGEROUS

• The Often Unknown Danger: UFPs are so tiny (less than 100 nanometers–a tiny unit of length in the metric system that equals one billionth of a meter.) that these particles do not just settle on the ground like larger dust particles do. Instead, they behave like a gas, staying suspended in the air.
• The Health Impact: Because they are so small, UFPs (See a list of these UFPs further down this page next article down) can pass directly through human lung tissue when breathed in outdoors, entering the bloodstream and traveling to major organs, including the heart and brain. Long-term outdoor exposure to UFPs is linked to elevated rates of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and systemic inflammation.

Yard Environment is Destroyed

Soundproofing requires residents to keep their high-efficiency windows tightly closed and rely constantly on air conditioning. This fundamentally alters how people live in their own homes:

• Residents are effectively barred from using their own backyards, patios, or local parks without being exposed to both the noise and the exhaust.
• Activities like gardening, playing outside with children, or hosting outdoor gatherings become impossible or hazardous to health.
• The constant falling of aviation exhaust can leave a thin, oily residue on outdoor furniture, vehicles, and backyard vegetable gardens.

3. Indoor Air Quality Suffers Even With Doors Closed–UFPs Are Dangerous and Microscopic In Size. They get Into Bloodstreams

Even if you stay inside a soundproofed home, standard home insulation and HVAC systems are often not equipped to filter out aviation-grade ultrafine particles. Without specialized, medical-grade HEPA filtration systems that run constantly, these microscopic outdoor pollutants slowly seep into indoor spaces through micro-gaps in doors and walls, meaning residents aren’t entirely safe inside either.

The tragedy of the current system is that the FAA and EPA evaluate noise and emissions completely separately.

• The FAA uses federal funds strictly to mitigate noise (via soundproofing) based on decibel averages.
• The EPA regulates regional air quality, but rarely measures the hyper-local, concentrated air pollution directly underneath a narrow, satellite-guided flight path.

Why Aren’t Microscopic Pollutants Regulated In Air Quality Monitoring?

The EPA supposedly monitors six “criteria” pollutants regulated by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) that can impact residential health. These include:

• Particulate Matter (PM-2.5 and PM-10): Fine soot and dust that can penetrate deep into the lungs.
• Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2): A byproduct of high-temperature jet engine combustion that contributes to respiratory issues.
• Carbon Monoxide (CO): Produced by incomplete fuel combustion, particularly during idling or taxiing.
• Sulfur Dioxide (SO2): Emitted from the combustion of sulfur-containing jet fuel, which can lead to respiratory problems.
• Ozone (O3): Formed when aircraft emissions react with sunlight at ground level.
• Lead (Pb): While largely phased out for commercial jets, it can still be present in emissions from smaller piston-engine aircraft using leaded fuel.

Here are the extremely dangerous pollutants not included:

• Ultrafine Particles (UFPs): Extremely small particles (less than 0.1 micron) that are not routinely monitored by the federal government but can enter the bloodstream. The main Components of Aircraft Ultrafine Particles include:
• Solid Soot (Nonvolatile Particulate Matter): Formed by the incomplete combustion of jet fuel, these tiny cores consist of carbon packed into graphene-like layers and agglomerates (roughly 10 to 60 nanometers in size).
• Sulfates (Volatile Particles): Formed as sulfur and exhaust gases cool and condense in the air, creating tiny sulfuric acid and sulfate droplets.
• Organic Compounds: Unburned or partially burned hydrocarbons and organic carbon condense onto particle surfaces during plume expansion.
• Aircraft Engine Lubricating Oils: Real-time mass spectrometry studies (such as research shared via Aerospace Global News) have detected chemical traces of jet engine lubricants, including compounds like tricresyl phosphate (TCP), attached to the ultrafine particles.
• Trace Metals: Insignificant or minor metal-containing mineral traces can also be present depending on engine wear and fuel composition.
• Also not listed in the EPA’s List Of 6 Criteria pollutants From Airplanes:
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Including hazardous air pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde, which are known or suspected carcinogens.
• Greenhouse Gases: Primarily Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and water vapor, which contribute to climate change and regional warming. 

Who Is Getting Hurt The Most From FAA And Airport Flight Decisions?

Residents in Crieve Hall, Oak Hill, Tusculum and other areas targeted areas in South and North Nashville have noted that new FAA flight patterns implemented in early 2025 (Doug Note: These planes have been coming for well beyond 2025) cause aircraft to throttle and accelerate at lower altitudes directly over their homes. This increased thrust during takeoff typically leads to a higher concentration of emissions released directly over residential properties compared to previous years. 

• Populations near airports: People living within 10–20 kilometers (6–12 miles) of major airports are exposed to elevated levels of harmful emissions from aircraft during landing and takeoff cycles.
• Children and asthmatics: Children are particularly susceptible to respiratory impacts, with studies showing elevated risks of respiratory symptoms near airports. Asthmatics have also shown a decline in lung function after short-term exposure to airport pollution.
• Those with pre-existing conditions: Individuals with respiratory problems, heart conditions, or diabetes are at higher risk of exacerbated symptoms from airport-related air pollution. 

• Ultrafine particles (UFPs): These particles are less than 100 nanometers and are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream, and affect major organs. Exposure to UFPs is linked to health issues including:
  • Decreased lung function
  • Cardiovascular problems
  • Increased risk of dementia, diabetes, and high blood pressure
• Nitrogen oxides (NOx): These pollutants contribute to the formation of smog and can worsen respiratory issues like asthma. A 2016 study found that NOx accounted for a large portion of premature deaths caused by emissions from airport landing and takeoff operations.
• Black carbon: A component of soot, this pollutant is released in high concentrations near runways and is linked to various cardiopulmonary diseases.
• Other hazardous pollutants: Airport communities also face elevated levels of other toxins, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can increase health risks. 

10 Miles Downwind Of Airplane Traffic Still In Danger Zone

The risk is highest for people who live or work very close to airports, and the pollution can impact areas extending up to 10 miles or more downwind. Children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions like asthma are particularly vulnerable. 

Impact on human health:

• Increased illness and hospitalization: Studies have found increased hospital admissions for respiratory and heart conditions in people living near major airports, with effects most pronounced in young children and the elderly.
• Adverse birth outcomes: One study near Los Angeles International Airport found that exposure to aircraft emissions was associated with an increased rate of pre-term births.
• Widespread exposure: Research indicates that the areas affected by airport emissions are much larger than previously thought, impacting wider residential communities

13 Consecutive Sundays Lost Forever—Our Government And Local Airport Is Doing This To Taxpayers And Homeowners

December 14, 2025 (Doug Note: This is one of a few articles I kept on this page from the first few years of trying to warn Nashville About the FAA and the Airport’s mistreatment of targeted communities. It is just an example of the abuse and the FAA’s and Nashville Airport’s complete disregard for homeowners that did nothing to deserve this treatment. Most have been where they are for 60 or more years.):

This marks the 13th Sunday in a row that Tusculum and Crieve Hall have been victimized nonstop by passenger jets (Thirteen of the best days of the week stolen yet again from the same homeowners by the BNA, FAA, and Metro Airport Authority. All because the airport refuses to use other runways or alter air traffic routes so that the same homes get relief.)

This kind of common sense might, of course, may cost the airport a few dollars and force flight controllers to concentrate again and treat us ALL with dignity; treat us like they treat their own families. The Nextgen Satellite office, wherever it is, is scheduled to CLOSE this month (it has since closed but satellite guidance is still abusing the same homes) because this 20 year old guidance system has cost American taxpayers billions of dollars and millions of homeowners agony, is now labeled a HUGE failure for many reasons, but none that pertain to homeowners. This system slowly spread across the nation during its two decades, targeting the same communities. The FAA refused during this that span of time to alter flight routes, and has ignored millions of calls from homeowners asking for relief. More satellite guidance is to come, however; more billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on it, too, with likely no respectful changes in flight patterns or the noise and pollution dumped over the same homes…including our Sundays that were once among the most peaceful and family-friendly days.

The last sentence above has proved correct. Overhead flights have only gotten worse and are now around the clock. Neither the FAA nor the Nashville Airport can tell us the extent of the dangerous tens of thousands of low-flying jets EVERY MONTH have on our health

Airport, FAA, Destroying Holidays, Too–Jets 45 to 60 Seconds Apart Now Common

Promises From A Local Councilman That Didn’t Happen

November 2025 (Doug Note: I kept this archived column, too, as Crieve Hall was promised higher flights by its council representative who met with the FAA without informing the community until sometime after the meeting. Her representation in this matter has been lousy and I believe she knew long ago what was in store for Crieve Hall. I might be wrong, but her actions don’t leave me much confidence in her work to defend the Crieve Hall community against the transgressions of the Nashville International Airport of the FAA).

—

The text below was posted on the Crieve Hall Nextdoor site as summer came to an end. As you can see, or tell from recent overhead noise and pollution on November 25, this isn’t going to happen.

We, the community, are the only ones who can win this this fight against the pollution and noise that has so decimated the serenity of a once wonderful community of Crieve Hall and many of areas of South Nashville. It is difficult to believe how this has happened and how we, as South Nashville residents, were duped. This was a part of the message we received from the Crieve Hall councilwoman:

“They (giant jets) won’t quite be at 7000 feet but they should be higher than 4000 when they get above us here in Crieve Hall. I’ve asked for the average altitude we can expect over our area and will update you when I get that info so we can compare to the current 4000 level. This change may not be as noticeable in November since winds are usually from the north then (fall and winter) so they’ll be taking off toward the north predominantly anyway. But it should help in spring and summer when those winds shift to more from the south! More info to come!

This did not happen, and the wind doesn’t always blow the direction you expect. Plus, when it does, one or two other areas become the victims of terrible flight management.

I asked Councilman Courtney Johnston to hold a community meeting on this unfair air flight 4 years ago as of 2026. She declined. Maybe we couldn’t have changed anything, but we would have had a say and we could have made decisions on a course of action–Doug M

Sound Meters Don’t Lie, But They Do Record Loud

Doug Note: The days below were just random days that are easy to record every day of the week in Tusculum and many days (and nights) of the week in Crieve Hall, too.

In 16 minutes, from a tad after 1 p.m., the FAA Guided these airplane over the same homes at very low altitudes. Here were the noise levels as recorded by a Toptes sound level meter:

Starting at 1:03 p.m.: A Southwest at 74 DBS +9 DBS above FAA danger threshold ; Southwest 73.3 DBS or +8.3 above 65; Air Canada Express 73.6 DBS or +8.6 above FAA threshold; Southwest 76.3 DBS or +11 DBS above FAA threshold; Southwest 74.2 DBS or +9.2 above FAA danger threshold; Southwest 73.5 DBS or +8.5 above threshold; American Airlines 73.2 DBS or +8.2 above threshold; Southwest 74 DBS or +9 above threshold (1:19 p.m)

Average DBS during this 16 minute span with hundreds of airplanes that had already flow 1300 feet or less above our homes, with hundreds of more to come (wind WnW–a crosswind that should have dictated these airplanes used Runway 13/31 instead of 20L):

74 DBS or +9.0 DECIBELS rocking our South Nashville homes supposedly outside the FAA’s Noise Impact Area. If not designated as in this zone, as we should be, we will never be compensated for the destruction brought on our lives daily.

Another Random 10 Minutes Of Hell From The FAA and Nashville Airport

An disharmonious riff of 65 DBs is when the Federal Aviation Administration admits jets become annoying, but it annoyance begins well below 65 DBs. Health experts say excessive noise damaging to health.The airplanes now directed over Tusculum and McMurray–despite the wind direction– far exceed 65 decibels. I used a Toptes sound level meter (see the photo on this page) to monitor the volume of these airplanes.

Beginning at 11:24 and lasting for about 10 minutes, on this particular day, these were level readings for just a few minutes of a very long and loud day:

Southwest Airlines:, 78.2 dBs (+13.2 above 65); Southwest 74.4 dBs (+9.1 above 65 decibels); United Airlines 71.1 dBs (6.1 above 65 decibels); Boeing 79.9 dBs (14.9 dBs above 65); Southwest 76.3 dBs (13.3 decibels above 65); Southwest 73.1 dBs (8.1 decibels above 65); Southwest 77.7 dBs (12.7 decibels above 65); Allegiant 74.9 dBs (9.8 decibels above 65); Southwest 75.1 dBs (10.1 decibels above 65); Southwest 79.9 dBs (14.9 decibels above 65)–11.22 Decibels above 65 decibels on average, or 76.22—and this will get louder tonight, especially after the FAA accesses an additional 10 points to the night time decibel level. It accesses itself a penalty, but that is about all it does it as far as I can determine.

THE NOISE IS ABUSIVE, THE POLLUTANTS FRIGHTENING AND AMOUNT OF HUMAN HEALTH DAMAGE UNKNOWN.

“The FAA defines a noise impact area primarily by a Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) of 65 dBA or higher, which is considered the threshold for significant noise exposure for residential areas. Areas are considered noise-sensitive, if noise interferes with normal activities, such as residential zones, schools, and parks. A proposed airport project may be deemed to have a significant noise impact if it causes an increase of at least 1.5 dBA at or above the DNL 65 dBA level.” How about 11.22 DBS above 65. What does that get us–along with the exhaust pollution?