Stiffer penalties against Navy pilots urged to stop sonic booms

RENO, Nev. - A sonic boom that rattled Austin and hurt the ears of some schoolchildren there is prompting calls for stiffer penalties against errant Navy pilots.

Ray Salisbury, chairman of the Lander County Land Use Advisory Planning Commission, said the ear-piercing rumble that startled students at Austin Elementary School early this month shows the Navy needs to do more about the problem.

But Fallon Naval Air Station officials say it was only an isolated incident and the number of noise complaints has dropped sharply since 1996 and 1997, when sonic booms caused major property damage in Austin. Jets cause sonic booms when they fly faster than the speed of sound, about 750 mph at sea level.

No major damage was reported after the latest incident. The earlier sonic booms shattered windows and cracked walls in Austin, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

''This one really shook my house and was on the verge of doing damage,'' Salisbury said. ''It did hurt the hearing of some kids in school and scared the heck out of them.''

School Principal Sheryl Swanson said at least five of her 31 students complained of ear pain after the sonic booms rocked the town 170 miles east of Reno. All students were on the playground at the time.

''It just startles you when it goes off,'' she said. ''We double-checked with parents because there was some concern about ear damage, but we've had no reports of any problem.''

Salisbury said the Fallon base instructs pilots about the need to avoid sonic booms over remote central Nevada towns, but the training doesn't seem to be working.

''If they break something, take it out of the pilot's pay instead of taxpayers' pay. That would really stop it,'' he said.

But Fallon base spokeswoman Anne McMillin said there are other ways to reprimand pilots.

''We're talking about very proud people here when you talk about pilots,'' she said. ''When you slap their pride that's sometimes just as effective as slapping their pocketbook.''

Some offenders have been paraded back to towns in uniform to issue personal apologies to victims, while others have been taken off flight schedules for two or three days, she said.

The pilots who caused the latest problem were reprimanded for flying out of the military's Supersonic Operating Area. The penalty wasn't disclosed.

''You never like to have a negative impact on a community over which we fly,'' McMillin said. ''We do try to be good neighbors and do our part to alleviate any issues out there.''

McMillin said the base's number of noise complaints has dropped from 273 in 1997 to 217 in 1998 and 124 through the first nine months of last year.

''The trend line is heading in the right direction and it's because we took a lot of aggressive measures after 1997 to respond to citizens living under operating areas,'' she said.

Among other things, the base has marked sensitive areas on pilots' maps and shifted the boundary of the Supersonic Operating Area to the west away from Austin.