A Burlington Board of Health meeting Tuesday night on the effects of basing F-35 fighter planes at the city-owned airport was bookended by often-emotional condemnations of the plane’s anticipated impact and by a military officer’s assurance that the jets will prove to be good neighbors.
In between, three experts offered generally critical testimony on the likely health consequences of stationing up to two dozen of the fighters at BTV.
Noise produced by the F-35 “is probably going to be quite similar to what we have with the F-16” currently based at the airport, said Vermont Air National Guard Lt. Col. Luke “Torch” Ahmann, who has piloted F-16s for the past 12 years.
Dressed in a flight suit and clicking his way through a Power Point presentation in city hall’s Contois auditorium, Ahmann said the F-35 will be louder than the F-16 in some locations near the airport but quieter in others.
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