Air Force looks to expand low-level flights over Gila Wilderness

By Hannah Grover
New Mexico Political Report

Opponents of a plan to conduct lower altitude military training flights in parts of western New Mexico and Arizona say that current operations are already impacting communities like Rodeo.

Residents of Rodeo, New Mexico and Portal, Arizona say that the training flights are happening at lower altitudes than currently allowed and in places where they aren’t supposed to occur. They say this is impacting their ability to live in the communities and that these flights occur at all times of the day.

The current training flights that people say are impacting their communities occur in and around the Tombstone Military Operations Area, including parts of Hidalgo County in New Mexico. They began in 2022.

The proposal calls for lower altitude flights in the Tombstone MOA, which includes more than 914,000 acres of public lands. Those include wilderness areas, national monuments and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

The proposal would also lead to low-altitude military training flights over the Gila Wilderness and surrounding areas.

The Air Force says these changes are needed for national security. The Air Force says that the changes in flight training, including lower altitude flights, are needed to properly prepare for modern military conflicts and that the current training areas are inadequate. The Air Force agreed earlier this month to extend the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement by 30 days.

The group Peaceful Chiricahua Skies submitted 310 pages of complaints about current training flights signed by 21 organizations and businesses as well as a petition with signatures and comments from more than 3,600 individuals.

Some of the commenters say they oppose the proposal in part because pilots have violated Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flown lower than they are permitted over houses. Some of the complaints also allege that the pilots are flying in areas where they are not permitted, including directly over the community of Portal, Arizona.

PCS says there have been nuisance noise complaints by residents living in areas where training flights are being conducted, including in Hidalgo County. Portions of Hidalgo County could be impacted by training flights in the Tombstone Military Operations Area, which is included in the plan to expand military training exercises and lower the altitude at which these occur. The 310-page document PCS submitted included copies of some of those nuisance noise complaints.

Among these are complaints from someone who was riding horses in Horseshoe Canyon in Arizona when military jets “streaked overhead very loud” and caused the horses to spook.

Another complaint came from Rodeo in Hidalgo County where a resident complained that the flights were causing sonic booms and rattling the windows of their house.

A complaint from Arizona pleaded that flights over their house stop because the training flights were scaring their children.

A person who lives between Rodeo and Portal complained that military helicopters were circling over their house and scaring their horses, including a mustang that the Bureau of Land Management captured using helicopters. They said that the flights were happening every night for a week in August 2023, including at midnight.

“Regardless of whether this DEIS survives in its present form, people living in the impacted Military Operations Area (MOA) are already sick and tired of existing combat missions violating all sorts of current regulations without any repercussions,” said Kim Vacariu, an organizer with PCS, said in a press release. “You can just imagine the violations that will occur if the proposed relaxation of restrictions takes effect.”

PCS and other opponents are seeking to make the Air Force continue to conduct all training flights in the Barry M. Goldwater Range.

Opponents of the proposed expansion say that noise complaints will become more common and the sonic booms could impact pristine areas like the Gila Wilderness should the low-altitude training flights be approved.