BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Below the flight path of Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) is the town of Superior.
“We're hearing the noise,” Mayor Mark Lacis told Denver7 Wednesday. “Our residents have been complaining for years.”
In 2024, the Town of Superior and Boulder County filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County, which owns and operates the airport, over the noise issue. A Boulder County court dismissed that lawsuit earlier this year, though the town said it is considering options, including an appeal.
But Lacis has more concerns, and this week, he reached out to Denver7 about them.
A June memo from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — which Lacis said he first saw after a resident’s Freedom of Information Act request — states RMMA leads the nation in potentially significant events (PSEs), which include both runway incursions and airborne safety incidents. That means it has a higher number of PSEs than the nearly 20,000 other airports nationwide that are part of the National Airspace System (NAS).
The memo came just one month after a plane crash near the airport that killed two people.
“When the FAA finds that the local airport in your backyard is the most dangerous airport in the country, it’s time to sound the alarm,” Lacis said.
Denver7 took those concerns to the FAA, which said the airport’s air traffic has taken off in recent years. Just days after the memo went out, the FAA said it made changes to improve safety by adding “structured traffic flows to and from the runways.”
- Read the FAA's statement below
"The FAA adjusted operating procedures at Rocky Mountain Metro Airport (BJC) to enhance air traffic safety and efficiency. Effective June 16, 2025, the FAA, in coordination with local BJC airport flight schools and other airport users, implemented structured traffic flows to and from the runways to minimize risk and increase safety."
The FAA noted it did not make changes to published instrument flight procedures. According to aviation expert Steve Cowell, that means those changes will apply generally to smaller planes, like Cessnas, not larger jets using the airport.
“They're minor changes leading to major safety improvements, and what they're going to be doing is improving the communications, improving the charting,” Cowell explained. “The directives that the pilots are going to be seeing on where to fly and the altitudes they're going to be flying at, and that's going to contribute, in a positive way, to decreasing the noise footprint as well.”
RMMA airport director Erick Dahl told Denver7 the FAA memos were internal, and that while the airport makes sure its infrastructure is safe, it’s up to the FAA to ensure safety in the sky.
“They didn't ask the airport what our take on flight paths were,” he said. “As far as I know from our conversation, the FAA, they seem happy with the changes they've made and see a significant increase in the safety operating out of the airport now.”
- Read RMMA's statement below
"Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) is aware of recently released Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) documents regarding air traffic procedures at the airport. Safety is top priority and while RMMA does not set or control flight paths, aircraft altitude assignments, or air traffic procedures – any change made to improve safety is positive for our community. The FAA periodically updates internal procedures to enhance safety and efficiency in the airspace. These internal communications are between FAA staff and FAA air traffic controllers. They do not originate from RMMA and were not developed by airport staff. RMMA remains committed to transparency and community engagement. While we do not have authority over air traffic routing decisions, we continue to share community concerns with the FAA and provide updates when information becomes available. For questions about the FAA’s procedures or the documents referenced, please contact the FAA directly."
Cowell spent some of his pilot training at RMMA, before the growth of its operations and the surrounding communities.
“There's a lot of training operations that are going on, and so there'll be a lot of mistakes, and mistakes lead to improvement in aviation,” he said. “Not everything that you hear about, or that's contributed to this ranking, has been a serious life-endangering issue. It could have been as simple as an airplane crossing over a double line by just a few feet that they weren't supposed to. That becomes an incursion.”
Lacis, however, said the airport has grown too fast and there are too many flight schools and planes using it, creating a safety risk.
“Flight school, training operations shouldn't be happening over densely-populated residential areas,” he said. “If the traffic was decreased, you would have less noise, and you'd have a safer airport.”
Denver7 has been following the back-and-forth between RMMA and the surrounding community for years. Read our previous coverage below:
- Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport noise study takes flight with focus groups
- Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport addresses neighbors' concerns, future growth during town hall
- A federal grant is going to fund a study on how bad the noise is at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport
- Superior, Boulder County sue Jefferson County over noise, lead concerns at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport
- Hundreds of homeowners sue Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport alleging harm to property values
- Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport announces elimination of leaded fuel
- Superior residents urge town to consider legal action against Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport
When asked about the idea of decreasing traffic at the airport, Cowell said, “I don’t see it being possible.”
“The airport is not going to go away. It provides a tremendous economic impact to the area, a lot of jobs are there,” he said. “What is realistic is for both parties — you know, all of the people living around the airport area, as well as the operators at the airport — to work together to come to decrease noise, for pilots to become more safety aware, and the instructors to become more safety aware, and for the FAA to also be proactive in helping to promote safety at that airport. And I think those three combined will lead to a safer and quieter environment.”
The airport is now conducting an FAA-backed Part 150 Study, allowing community focus groups to look into the noise issue for surrounding communities and identify possible solutions. Lacis called it “a step in the right direction, but it's not the entire solution.”
“The solution is touch-and-go operations over densely populated areas need to stop,” he said.
