Community group, Plane Sense Wellington Inc, has instructed class action lawyers Dalzell Wollerman to commence a High Court judicial review, to declare the DMAPS flight path change as invalid and to be set aside. The organisations have been served today and Plane Sense considers it has a strong case against those involved.

Airways (its subsidiary Aeropath Ltd), Wellington International Airport Ltd and the Director of Civil Aviation are being challenged to account for public health, safety and legal issues, resulting from decisions made before and after implementing the DMAPS flight path change, on 1 December 2022. The flight path change increases aircraft movements at Wellington Airport, it diverts jet aircraft over residences sooner than the previous path, and the change took place without consultation with the community.

Plane Sense has attempted to work collaboratively with Airways and Wellington Airport since March 2023. It has worked tirelessly as a voluntary organisation to have the original departure path reinstated over the harbour, by agreement with all parties. However, Wellington Airport and Airways have offered no commitment to change, despite the most recent acoustic report validating resident concerns and establishing that the original noise modelling work was inadequate and inaccurate.

Resident concerns include exacerbated physical and mental health conditions, including those of children, the elderly and vulnerable members of the community. Residents’ health conditions include post-traumatic stress disorder, dementia, depression, brain injuries, sensory processing disorders, ADHD and chronic migraine. In April 2024, at a Plane Sense community meeting, those residents affected by the noise voted overwhelmingly (95.6%) to proceed with legal proceedings, rather than engage in an ongoing and lengthy process proposed by Wellington Airport - which has no guaranteed outcome for residents’ improved wellbeing.

Plane Sense spokesperson and Co-Founder, Roxy Steel says, “The community has already endured 18 months of the current status quo and the organisations involved are not taking responsibility for the mistakes that have been made. We have obtained Official Information documents that detail a pressured timeline that left no time for a full community consultation, and emails that suggested the community could be a ‘potential roadblock’. The documents show that Wellington Airport approved DMAPS just 24 hours after it received an email from acoustician Marshall Day, with ‘initial outcome’ information, "with more to come" and in the knowledge of it "affecting more houses”. This process differs from other flight path changes at Wellington Airport – namely the arrival path (PBN in 2018) where community feedback was sought, with full benchmark testing of actual noise before and after the trial. DMAPS has been an unfair and unprofessional process that lacks integrity and has been thrust upon our community.

“Wellington Airport and Airways have told us on many occasions that they do not wish to reinstate the previous flight path, which was in place for the previous 60 years, they have also said that they are not designing alternative flight paths beyond redirecting the 6am-7am flights. The proposal (put forward in Wellington Airport’s 10 April 2024 media release) is not good enough and does not undo the harm being caused to everyday Wellingtonians now. It has open-ended timing and could extend over a year or more without assurance that the original track will be reinstated. For reference, it took 9 months for the organisations to install sound monitors, collect up to 3 months of data and analyse it after we had requested more precise reporting.”

Louisa Picker, Co-Founder of Plane Sense, adds, “The latest acoustic report shows that residents are experiencing decibel levels of up to 80dB. We have neighbours who did their research and settled in the suburbs because it was previously quiet - neighbours with health conditions made worse by loud noise. We also have neighbours who moved in just before the change and couldn’t make an informed decision to proceed because the new flight path wasn’t public knowledge. Our community was never given the respect or opportunity to provide feedback on the change before jet aircraft were concentrated and diverted directly overhead. It’s been heartbreaking to read resident impact stories and the organisations’ standard emails in response to their suffering – often residents appealing for a reprieve for family members. These are multi-million-dollar corporations that publicly self-promote their environmental, social and governance messages about communities and mental health.

“We are looking for support from our wider New Zealand community as we challenge this process. These organisations did not consider our community’s best interests - this time it is our community but next time it could be anyone’s. Whilst we are focused on the immediate issue right now, we see it as our responsibility to hold these organisations to account, so it doesn’t happen to other unsuspecting communities in the future.”

Plane Sense represents residents from Johnsonville, Broadmeadows, Khandallah, Ōhāriu Valley, Ngaio and Crofton Downs. Since March 2023, Plane Sense has been questioning the process and implementation of this flight path decision, reviewing documents obtained via the Official Information Act. It is creating a strong and collective voice to be heard and effect change for the peace of the community. Donations towards Plane Sense’s legal costs can be made by visiting planesensewellington.com/donate.

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