Jet Age Precedent

"A noisy noise annoys an oyster," French students recite as they learn English pronunciation. The jet age is bothering more than oysters. French trial records mention a horse killed by a sonic boom, female mink driven to eating their young, and Burgundy wine soured by the roar of low-flying planes. What the French press blasts as "sonic aggression" has now led a Nice real estate man to an equally loud legal triumph that is sure to give airlines a splitting headache.

After Builder Einar Rossow put up the Oiseau Bleu (Blue Bird) apartment house, the screech of more than 50 jets a day at the nearby Nice airport discouraged prospective tenants. The Blue Bird's builder sued Air France, the major noisemaker. At takeoff, the government-controlled airline did not think it was in for much turbulence. Air France simply argued that the proper party to sue was the Nice chamber of commerce, which runs the airport. "We just land where we are told," said the airline. What's more, the builder had taken a deliberate risk: nestled the Blue Bird only 80 yards from the airport runway. And, finally, Air France invoked a 1952 international aviation treaty that declares: "There is no right to damages if the injury results only from the passage of the aerial vehicle through air space in conformity to the applicable traffic rules."

Unhappily for the airline, France has yet to ratify that treaty. As a result, Plaintiff Rossow was able to rely on a 1924 French law that says: "The right of an aerial vehicle to fly over private property cannot be exercised in such conditions as to interfere with the rights of the proprietor." Those rights, said the plaintiff, were clearly violated since the jets created a 115-decibel din, a nerve-snapping 45 decibels above what scientists say humans can tolerate. To the airline's shock a court of appeals upheld Rossow, noting only that any lack of effort to soundproof the Blue Bird should cut the still-to-be decided damage award.

The decision echoed across France. By last week, neighbors of airports in Bastia, Corsica, and Paris had filed suit, and Air France feared its legal problems were headed into the sacrebleu yonder. Said one official: "In no time at all we are likely to be sued for millions of dollars all over the country." As for the Blue Bird's owner, things were looking up. Not only did he seem likely to get a good hunk of the $400,000 he had sued for, but he had finally succeeded in selling two more apartments--to deaf men.

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