WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Residents of the Flamingo Park neighborhood in West Palm Beach can tell when President Donald Trump is at his Mar-a-Lago home. That's because jetliners will take off from Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA) and fly right over their houses.
"We're getting it every single day that he's here," said homeowner Brad Fuson.
WATCH BELOW: Residents sound off on noise concerns from air traffic
"It's a little hard to talk when one of those goes directly overhead," added Linda Cullen of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association.
"The problem is, they start really early at 6:03 in the morning," said homeowner John Oliveros, who bought his house three years ago when airplane noise was not an issue. "We would have never bought and many of the neighbors would not have bought knowing that."
For the past four years, northbound jetliners taking off from PBIA headed straight east almost directly over Mar-a-Lago before turning north.
But when Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, the Federal Aviation Administration imposes a mile-wide no-fly zone, diverting jets north. This goes right over four historic West Palm Beach neighborhoods, including Flamingo Park.
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"I'm all for national security and protecting the president," resident Brad Fuson said. "If there's a solution, they need to be looking into it because this is not the right one."
WPTV reached out to the FAA which referred us to the U.S. Secret Service.
The Secret Service did not return WPTV's calls or emails.
On its website, PBIA says:
"In order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for President-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has requested that the Federal Aviation Administration institute temporary procedural changes that restrict aircraft from flying directly over Mar-a-Lago when the President-elect is visiting. These changes are expected to be in place for the duration of the President-elect's term and mirror what was instituted during his previous presidency. The USSS recognizes that these procedural changes could have an impact on the public and has expressed its appreciation of the surrounding community's understanding."
Aviation security expert Jeff Price said the Mar-a-Lago no-fly zone is a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"The further away an aircraft is from what could be considered a primary target, the more time security forces have to respond to that," Price said.
He added that homeowners living with the roar of the diverted flights won't likely get help from the agency tasked with protecting the president.
WPTV asked Price, who is a professor of Aviation and Aerospace Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, how flexible the Secret Service might be for homeowners who want to see some of the flights diverted away from their homes while respecting the no-fly zone.
"They're not real flexible," Price said, noting the Secret Service is tasked with protecting the president. "They pretty much come in and dictate exactly what that airport is going to do, exactly how things are going to be set up."
WPTV asked Linda Cullen of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association if there is anything that can be done to quell the noise or change the flight paths when Trump is at Mar-a-Lago.
"I don't think there's anything anyone can do about it," Cullen replied.
He noted that homeowners had to cope with the noise during Trump's first term.
When WPTV crunched the numbers and found that Trump's second term could be noisier for these neighborhoods.
We compared the number of flights leaving PBIA in 2024 to the number that departed in 2019 — Trump's last full year in office before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed air travel in 2020.
WPTV found commercial flights increased 16%, which is 22 more flights each day.
"When I bought my home here, you couldn't hear anything. That was important to us," Fuson said.
"We would have never bought and many of the neighbors would have bought knowing that," Oliveros added.
He doesn't see a solution to protect the quiet when the president is in town.
"We'll just have to deal with that for the next four years," Oliveros said.
Neighbors hope some of the flights can be diverted south of Mar-a-Lago.
WPTV spoke with one member of the airport's noise committee who told us she hopes the FAA and the Secret Service will at least hear their concerns.
