Thousands Of Flights Pass Over Fremd

Thousands of flights coming and going from O'Hare International Airport pass within a mile of Fremd High School, according to a presentation by the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.

The flights – about 3,373 arrivals and 801 departures – represent about 6 percent of flights in a month at the airport. The data was gathered during the month of Decemeber to answer questions of village officials.

Many of the arrivals pass over the high school at an altitude of between 6,000 and 9,000 feet, bank east to head out over Lake Michigan before turning around to land at O'Hare, said Aaron Frame, assistant commissioner noise abatement.

The departures tend to pass over Fremd at between 4,000 and 6,000 feet.

There are a group of arrivals that pass at between 2,000 and 4,000 feet. Those planes are destined to land at a northwesterly runway that points directly at Palatine, Frame said.

The northwesterly runway, also known as 14 Left, is expected to be demolished as part of the O'Hare modernization project. Frame said that 14 Left should be gone by 2020.

"Chances are [the northwest] runways are going to be decommissioned before 2020...because we need to get in and begin ripping up pavement," Frame said.

"I think the good news, for Palatine, is the vast majority of these 3,300 arrivals are going to go away," Frame said. "That's not to say you're not going to have any planes, trust me your going to have planes, but we anticipate quite a few less."