As of October, the U.S. Secret Service designated President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, as a no-fly zone, forcing aircraft to divert around it even when he is not visiting. Speaking with the Washington Post, residents of the area planes must now fly over fumed over the noise and soot left behind.
As required by the no-fly zone, a significant number of lanes are now routed over the El Cid neighborhood, a few blocks north of Trump's resort. However, it's not just the noise from these planes leaving or arriving at Palm Beach International Airport causing a stir, as some area officials highlighted the abruptness with which the policy was put in place.
“There was no lead-up to this,” Nancy Pullum, chair of the Citizens’ Committee on Airport Noise, said. “It just happened. Literally nobody knew. The flight traffic controllers didn’t know. The airport, they didn’t know. Palm Beach County didn’t know.
“It’s thundering,” Pullum added. “It’s as if they’re accelerating when they’re right over me. You go take your trash out to your garbage can, and you realize there’s a plane right over your head, and you can see the belly of it.”
“We want to do everything to make sure we protect our president, and we understand that when he’s there, this is what needs to happen,” Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss told the Post.“But when he’s not there, why? What’s the concern at that point?”
The Secret Service declined to go into much detail about the decision when pressed for comment by the Post.
“In order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the President, the U.S. Secret Service requested the FAA institute additional temporary flight restrictions over Mar-a-Lago,” a Secret Service spokesman said in a written statement. “We recognize that these changes could have an impact on the public and appreciate the Palm Beach community’s understanding as we work to keep the President safe.”
Since acquiring the Mar-a-Lago property in 1985, Trump has sued the county and the airport over plane noise. The first two cases were dismissed, as was the third, but only after he was elected president in 2016. This meant air traffic was diverted from over the resort, but unlike the present situation, it was only when he was visiting.
The current setup is set to remain in effect until at least October of next year.