On January 30 2007

UPDATE!! Read a story about another life who has been affected by Suvarnabhumi Airport.

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Plane vibrates my happy home

Even though the Suvarnabhumi Airport formally opened almost two months ago, but I am still have yet to get use to the eardeafening noise of aircraft that seems louder every day.

Staying home has become a bad day - instead of a time to kick back and relax. Tension and headache reign the day.

Last week (Wednesday, November 8) I called Somchai Sawasdiphol, a General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, to complain about the situation because my village, Noble Park, was not on the list of communities affected by the airport. But, actually, it's absolutely the opposite.

After received some information, he said, "Some aircraft may use the west runway without permission. I ordered prohibition of using this runway because there are too many residential areas that would be affected."

I didn't get it! How can a giant aircraft could have sneak behind airport officials and decide on their own to use an offlimit runway? But I decided not to nag him about it. Didn't have the energy. The noise pollution zapped them all.

Like a typical Thai official, he said an official would be assign to look into the matter and perhaps a way out of my suffering. I am supposed to hold my horses.

 Nearly four days later still no official. No one came to the neighbourhood to talk to anybody. So I called him again. But this time I caught him in a meeting ... about noise pollution. This time around, he assured me that my resident is on the table. The committee has officially agreed that Noble Park is right on the flight path and that an officer would pay a visit within this week to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, back in my pad, the planes continue to come, rolling down from the sky one by one endlessly, vibrating my home and my head. As an exercise to quantify this situation, I asked my five and a half years old daughter to note the time of the passing aircraft. From 11:19am to 12:00am, there were 14 flights passing over my roof. It meant there was a flight passing my roof every four minutes.

A lengthy 50 minute break followed and ten minute to 1:00pm, it was back to business again. That humming sound, gliding down from heaven but it was no angel. Just a big chunk of metal that managed to come close enough where I read the number and letters on its giant wings. I thought about buying a lottery based on the numbers on the plane. Hey, why not? The numbers came from the sky! It has to be better than some earthly monks. But there were so many of them and each plane was not much different from the other. They all sounded equally awful.

 On Tuesday (November 14), a female staff from the airport called me and asked for more information. What can I say? It's noisy! One was diving down the back of my head as we speak. "Can you hear it?" I asked.  She gave an embarrassing "yes". God, I wish she could feel the vibration under my feet.

• Click here to see VDO (part one)
• Click here to see VDO (part two)