STEVE PORTELLI has bags under his eyes.

Airservices Australia has been diverting jets over the Cockburn councillor’s Aubin Grove home at night, despite recently cancelling a trial after discovering noise would be too high.

Cr Portelli says the authority is fudging by sending planes south from Perth airport to turn west at Jandakot under the guise of “validation flights”.

“It sounds like a trial to me, every night when they fly overhead,” he told the Herald.

He reckons the 5am flight is a rude awakening: “The first I heard it, I thought it was coming in to land on Gibbs Road.”

Airservices, which manages flight paths across the country, says the flights help verify its previous modelling about an alternative night-time flight path.

It wants to reduce the impact of jets on suburbs bordering the Swan River — such as in Applecross, Shelley and Rossmoyne — where the current flight path turns west.

A spokesperson says if the modelling is wrong and the flights don’t disturb southern residents too much, it will consider a new year-long trial.

Its website states modelling is based on criteria such as when people notice aircraft noise and what upsets them, rather than simply decibels.

Cr Portelli fears that by claiming the flights are simply validation, and by not asking for community input, Airservices might not receive the complaints to back up its decision to cancel the trial.

“It’s all just semantics—it is a trial and it could get a lot worse.”

He’s urging affected locals to get in touch with Airservices Australia to give them a piece of their mind.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK