TagFlight Tracks(61)

This document contains airfield mapping and flight-track data related to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), showing Port of Seattle lease boundaries, zone match lines, and recorded aircraft flight paths in the surrounding region. It includes a radar playback capture from August 14, 2019, depicting a FedEx 397 missed approach and an Alaska 807 departure with a non-standard turn at approximately 2,130 feet MSL. The materials appear to be part of an airport noise or operations review archive documenting aircraft movement patterns around Sea-Tac.

In a March 2021 public comment to the Highline Forum, Federal Way resident Bernedine Lund urged Sea-Tac Airport officials to request that the FAA disperse departure flight paths to reduce concentrated aircraft noise over residential areas. Drawing on examples from the 2021 Aviation Noise & Emissions Symposium, she highlighted how Charlotte Douglas International Airport successfully spread departure tracks from a 1.6-mile-wide corridor to 2.5 miles, and noted that similar tightly clustered flight paths exist over Federal Way. She pointed to FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, Section 175, which allows airport operators—in consultation with affected communities—to formally request dispersal of departure procedures between the surface and 6,000 feet, provided the change does not increase noise over sensitive areas.

This October 27, 2020 document from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport tracks the average daily number of Horizon Air Q400 turboprop aircraft making a westbound 250-degree turn over the city of Burien during full north-flow operating days. Data from July and August of both 2019 and 2020 show daily overflight counts ranging from 10 to 22 aircraft, with monthly averages rising from 16 overflights per day in summer 2019 to 17–19 overflights per day in summer 2020. The records appear intended to document trends in aircraft noise exposure for residents living under that flight path.

These flight track maps from the Port of Seattle show aircraft arrival, departure, and overflight paths at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on March 1–2, 2018. On March 1, the airport operated predominantly in South Flow (87% of operations, 953 flights), with a brief period of North Flow (13%, 145 flights); on March 2, all 1,118 operations were conducted entirely in South Flow. The maps illustrate how flight corridors shift direction depending on the flow configuration, affecting which surrounding communities—such as those north of the airport near Shoreline and Mountlake Terrace versus those to the south near Auburn and Pacific—experience the greatest noise exposure.

This January 2018 progress update from ESA presents an analysis of aircraft arrivals at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), examining whether notable changes occurred between 2013, 2015, and 2017. The study uses radar flight track data from July and December of each year to compare fleet mix, runway usage, and aircraft altitudes at six nautical miles from the airport. Key questions addressed include whether arrival numbers increased, whether traffic flow patterns shifted between north and south flow, and whether arriving aircraft were flying at different altitudes over the study period.

This map shows the Des Moines and SeaTac area of Washington State, highlighting a noise impact corridor (shown in teal) that sweeps across the region near Sea-Tac Airport. The corridor passes over several schools including Mt. Rainier High School, Pacific Middle School, Midway Elementary, St. Philomena School, and Des Moines Elementary, indicating these institutions fall within the airport's noise-affected zone. A separate boundary (shown in orange) outlines what appears to be an airport-related land use or acquisition area in the southern portion of the map near Interstate 5.