HILO, Hawai'i — With the end of Aloha Airlines passenger service and the expected sale of its cargo service, Hawaiian homesteaders who live alongside Hilo airport are renewing their call for an end to a special federal exemption that allows Aloha to use jet engines that are noisier than the engines allowed at Mainland airports.

Homesteaders, including some who live just a few hundred yards from the Hilo runway, say they have been waiting years for noise mitigation and noise monitoring, and they believe it is time for the state and federal government to solve the problem.

"The purpose and the reasons to keep it are not there anymore, so they just have to amend the law," said Hans Mortensen, environmental co-chair for the Keaukaha Community Association. "Our congressional leaders should think more about the health and safety of our people. They really wanted to help the businesses, which is OK, but what about us? What about the people?"

Gov. Linda Lingle and Hawaiian Homes Commission Chairman Micah Kane in 2006 asked Hawai'i's congressional delegation to terminate the exemption that allowed Aloha to use the louder Stage 2 jet engines in Hawai'i, but U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye refused.

It was Inouye, now chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee with oversight of aviation, who obtained the 1990 exemption to allow the interisland airlines to use the louder engines.

Since Aloha has filed for bankruptcy, closed its passenger service and put its cargo and service businesses up for sale, "we understand it's going to be a matter of what the judge does, whether it's a new carrier that buys it, or somebody comes in," said Inouye chief of staff Jennifer Sabas.

"We clearly understand the community's concerns, and will continue to follow it as the bankruptcy court makes its decision."

She added: "We would hope that whoever the new investor is, or the new buyer is, would either come in with a new operation, and at that point the stage 2 exemption wouldn't apply, or with the new investor they would come in and purchase a new fleet or retro out the stage 2, and then replace them with stage 3 (quieter engines)," she said.

AIRPORT EXPANSION

The airport and the Keaukaha community on abutting Hawaiian Home lands have been uncomfortable neighbors for many decades.

The subdivision was created in 1924, with about 240 lots distributed to the original homesteaders by 1929. Construction on the small forerunner of today's Hilo airport began in 1925, with the facility dedicated in 1928.

In the years that followed, the territory and state took control of additional chunks of Hawaiian homelands to expand the airport, wiping out almost 300 homestead lots and relocating families as the airport grew to about 1,250 acres with two runways.

Malani Alameda, 30, recalls stories his grandfather told him about his great-grandmother, who successfully fought government efforts to move from her home on Lyman Avenue to make way for expanded airport operations.

Today, Alameda lives in a home he built about 300 yards from the runway. He can look out his windows and see departing jets at tree-top level, and the noise is deafening.

Alameda's wife baby-sits at the house, and the small children she watches sometimes panic and run for cover when the loudest jets arrive and depart, he said. The planes cause the house to vibrate, cause the television to flicker, and Alameda said he is worried when the noise from the planes jolts his young son awake, over and over.

"I'm looking to have more kids, and I hope they won't have to go through what my son went through," he said. Asked why he chose to live in noisy Keaukaha, Alameda said he wants to raise his children in the close-knit Hawaiian community where he grew up. There is nothing like it anywhere else, he said.

Alameda and Mortensen said they are sorry for the jobs lost when Aloha ended its passenger service on March 31, but said there has been a vast improvement in the noise levels in Keaukaha since then. The loudest remaining planes are Aloha's cargo flights, which continue to use the stage 2 engines under the federal exemption.

"For us in our community, this is the opportunity for one of the chapters to be closed, and we need to take advantage of it now," Mortensen said. "Since the airline has gone out of business, there isn't any need for that (exemption), and so they need to amend the law."

Aloha Airlines said in a statement Friday that it is aware of the community concerns about noise, and "we have taken steps to minimize the noise impact by altering landing patterns and introducing aircraft fitted with hush kits."

"At the same time, however, we have been unable to find another aircraft type that is as well suited to the needs of the market, particularly in the area of air cargo capacity," the company said in its statement. "Without this aircraft, Aloha would not have been able to provide the high-quality air cargo service that the community requires to move its fresh produce to world markets."

AIRLINE SALE ISSUE

David Frankel, a lawyer for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., has been representing the community association as it tries to get relief from airport noise. He said potential buyers in the bankruptcy auction of Aloha's cargo business in San Francisco tomorrow should be put on notice that the federal noise exemption won't continue.

"If the companies that are bidding for the cargo business understand that the stage 2 exemption is not going to continue, then they will bid less money for the cargo services," he said. Frankel argued the only entities benefiting from the continued exemption would be Aloha's creditors, which would receive more money from the sale of the cargo business.

Conversely, if the new owners convert the cargo fleet to stage 3 aircraft as Hawaiian Airlines converted its interisland fleet years ago, then the new planes will be more fuel efficient and more economical to operate in an era of rapidly rising jet-fuel costs, Frankel said.

Frankel said Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. lawyers have been researching the possibility that claims can be made that the state is breaching its duties under the Hawaiian Home Lands trust by letting airport noise devalue trust lands.

Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said administration senior policy adviser Linda Smith has been meeting with community representatives on the issue, "and we are aware of the situation and the residents' concerns about the cargo planes, including the timing of the flights," some of which are late at night or early in the morning.

"I think we'll have to wait until the bid opens for the cargo operations to see what is submitted, and then we'll be able to address it from there."

Pang said he believes the Lingle administration's position is still that the exemption should be repealed.