MILITARY AIRCRAFT OVER JURONG WEST

Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence (a) if he is aware that military aircraft have been flying overhead in the vicinity of Jurong West at three to five minute intervals, causing great noise nuisance to the HDB residents and resulting in the difficulty in selling the HDB flats; and (b) whether he can do something to abate the noise nuisance due to military aircraft flying overhead.

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: MINDEF is aware of the noise issue and understands the concerns about the noise level generated by aircraft flying activities. The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has been minimising its aircraft from flying over densely populated residential areas. However, due to our country's limited airspace, it is inevitable that our aircraft will overfly some residential estates in the vicinity of airbases.

The RSAF needs to conduct day and night flying to maintain operational readiness for the defence of our country. We are already conducting a lot of aircraft training overseas, but in-country flying still needs to be done as our pilots need to be familiar with our local airspace environment.

RSAF first instituted noise abatement measures in the late seventies. Over the years, other measures have been implemented incrementally. These include the following:

a) Raising the minimum transit altitudes of RSAF aircraft overhead Singapore;

b) Revising departure and arrival routings to minimise over-flights of residential areas;

c) Having our aircraft take the quickest route to the training areas;

d) Ceasing night-flying by 11.00 pm (unless absolutely necessary for operational reasons); and

e) Scaling down the flying activities during the year-end examination period.

We would like to assure residents that MINDEF/RSAF will continue to find ways to further reduce aircraft noise, while maintaining the operational readiness of the RSAF.