Closing Arguments Set In Mile-Hi Skydiving Trial

On Wednesday, Boulder District Court Judge Judith LaBuda is scheduled to hear closing arguments in a lawsuit that claims a skydiving company's airplanes make too much noise, and fly too frequently over residential neighborhoods.

Saturday afternoon, the judge was on the patio of the home belonging to one of the plaintiffs. She had ordered site visits to the homes of two of the four plaintiffs to experience the noise first hand.

The Times-Call of Longmont, CO reports that representatives of Mile-Hi, the skydiving company, were also present, as were a court stenographer and attorneys from the various parties to the suit. While the judge did not comment on the noise, the paper reports that the sound from the Twin Otter flying high overhead was not louder that the leaves on nearby trees rustling in the breeze, birdsongs, or a revving engine.

However, Kimberly Gibbs, unofficial organizer of the group Citizens for Quiet Skies, said that the company had planned an "unusually quiet" flight for the day the judge was evaluating the situation. She said it was the "quietest skydiving operation that has ever been conducted in the history of skydiving," adding that it would be "great if they flew that quietly all the time."

Gibb's husband Timothy Lim presented documents printed from Flight Track that he says shows that the company flew a different route than normal for the day of the evaluation.

Gibbs also said that the planes normally fly so low over the neighborhood that she can read the "N" number on the aircraft, but on Saturday, they were high in the sky.

Mile-Hi owner Frank Casares, who flew one of the planes Saturday, said the two aircraft flew "normal flight patterns" as the judge had required for the evaluation. Casares said in a written statement that the planes flew a typical pattern flown "on any given day with similar wind conditions, which were also typical for this time of the year."

FMI: www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/County/Index.cfm?County_ID=62