PARKWAY VILLAGE, Ky. — Virginia Embry just wants to sleep through the night.
"They can kind of shake my bed at night. Sometimes when the big planes are going down the runway, I can feel my bed kind of move," Embry said.
Embry lives in Parkway Village, just under two miles from the start of the tarmac of the east runway at Muhammad Ali International Airport. All throughout the day, planes of different sizes takeoff and land near her house.
"I know last Sunday, it was just horrible. I mean they were just constantly coming over," she said.
While at Embry's house on Tuesday, FOCUS saw a plane take off or land about once every seven minutes.
Embry and her son Richard said that was a "run of the mill day" but it can be more frequent.
The Louisville Regional Airport Authority (LRAA) realizes what these homeowners are going through, and so it runs a federally-funded program called the "QuieterHome Program." Residents who live in a specific zone can qualify to get free noise-resistant windows and doors if their home passes a sound testing.
RELATED: Residents near Louisville airport wait years for federal noise insulation, FOCUS investigates
The LRAA estimates the value of each sound proofing package at $57,000.
Some residents identified for the program were waiting over four years to be tested. A homeowner FOCUS interviewed in December 2022 still hasn't gotten her sound proofing installed.
After being identified in an approved zone, employees contracted by the airport come to your house with a load speaker and test your home.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only allows homes within or touching the "65 day night level" to get this insulation.
Homes that have an interior noise level of 45 decibels or higher get approved for the free insulation. Embry's home tested at 43.6 decibels, the airport rounded her up to 44, but she still was denied.
“I don’t think one decibel is that big of a difference, I think they could have made an effort to do the job for me," Embry said.
Twenty-eight homes were tested in Embry's group and they were the only ones to fail.
The LRAA said it cannot give anyone an exception, as that is disallowed by FAA code. Its staff did consider a retest, but Embry's home didn't meet those requirements.
"Retesting of any property requires special permission from the FAA’s Airport District Office that must include a valid reason such as a lack of access to the exterior or interior of the property or a significant remodel of the property that would change its layout and interior acoustical properties. A retest was considered; however, it was determined that the address did not meet the criteria listed above," LRAA spokeswoman Natalie Chaudoin said over email.
Richard Embry said their home was tested on a cold rainy day in January, and the loud speaker was covered in protective film. He wonders if that could have been a factor.
“A layer of film over a sound machine could possibly make a one decibel difference. You don’t know. I mean, I’m not a scientist, I can’t say," Richard said.
Chaudoin said the protective film is often used and it doesn't lessen the noise.
RELATED: Here's how the FAA looks to change flights to reduce neighborhood noise near the Louisville airport
"It is also important to note that the sound test does not require that the loudspeaker generate a precise sound level since it is only the relative difference in the exterior and interior sound levels that is used to determine the noise reduction of a room," Chaudoin said.
Whether it was a just denial or not, the news was extremely tough for Virginia to swallow because of all the work she's dedicated to airport noise over the last two decades.
The Courier-Journal interviewed her about the problem in 1998, she collected signatures to lobby for an extension east of Alexander Avenue in 2013, and also did an interview with WHAS11 that same year.
“I was disappointed, very disappointed. That I had worked so hard, and I had been left out," Embry said.
She hopes her story will convince either the FAA or LRAA to loosen their guidelines to give her a better night's sleep.
The LRAA said it has insulated 764 homes since 2010. The airport still has 196 homes to test in phase 2 of the program. A third phase could be coming --where more homes are included-- but the FAA is still yet to approve a new map.
Residents can only get the insulation if they sign an "avigation easement" which prevents them from ever suing the airport for any issue related to flights over their house. The contract bars people from suing for "injury, death" or any other reason.
FOCUS interviewed an airport law expert in 2022 who said this language is standard for programs like this.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.