It was President’s Day of this year when the noise became unbearable for Maryann Aberg.

At her home in the Swan School Condos on Park Street, Aberg and her husband heard airplanes flying overhead over the course of six hours, causing windows and floors to rattle and making it difficult to have conversations, listen to music or conduct business, according to Aberg.

During the following months, the couple found little relief from the noise. On some days, their home was bombarded with low-flying planes as often as every 30 seconds, Aberg said.

“Reaching out to friends and neighbors, we discovered a slew of folks experiencing the same issue,” she said.

At that point, Aberg got involved with existing community organizations and campaigns to address the issue of increased aircraft noise in Medford and surrounding towns.

In July, she founded the Logan Aircraft-Noise Working Group, a group of concerned community members that has grown to approximately 50 people hailing from Medford, Winchester, Malden, Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge, Watertown and Belmont. A third of the group’s members, Aberg estimates, are from Medford, which she believes is one of the most affected communities in the area.

“I would say that things have gotten so bad so frequently now that you could say the cascade of problems is enormous, although it has been difficult for certainly at least five years, at least in Medford,” Aberg said.

The group’s next meeting will take place on Monday, Sept. 11, at Medford Fire Station 5 at Medford Street from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

The main topic of the meeting is an MIT study commissioned by Massport and the Federal Aviation Administration – the state and federal organizations that govern operations at Logan Airport – to assess options for noise abatement and ways to decrease the concentration of flight paths in the region.

Years of Complaints

Residents and elected officials from Medford and nearby communities have been complaining of increased aircraft noise coming from Logan Airport for at least a decade. One of the biggest culprits came in 2013, when the Federal Aviation Administration implemented RNAV, an automated navigation protocol that concentrates aircrafts into narrower paths, for Logan’s runway 33L – the source of departing airplanes that fly over Medford.

“Before 2013, the jets could take off of 33L and fan out a little bit, and the pilots had more discretion over the flight paths they were taking because the corridor was a mile wide or so,” explained Peter Houk, the Medford representative for the Massport Community Advisory Committee. “Now it’s less than a mile wide.”

As a result, people living under the narrower, more concentrated flight path are experiencing more noise.

Though the FAA and Massport argue that RNAV and other changes to flight paths and practices improve efficiency and safety, Luke Preisner, the Medford representative for the former Logan Airport Community Advisory Committee, said that costs are also an important factor.

“The FAA always says, ‘Safety.’ In the large part, it’s true, but you can’t ignore the clear economic motives as well,” Preisner said. “The FAA wants to reduce work load, the airlines want to save fuel and the routes are more efficient, so they save money there. And then Logan makes money because there are more aircrafts coming in.”

This summer, the problem became more acute for many in Medford, as runway closures due to construction forced more planes to take off from 33L and to arrive at runway 15R, another path that directs planes over Medford. Though most of the construction took place between May 15 and June 23, intermittent runway closures will continue throughout November.

Because Logan also uses 33L for international departures, which often take off late at night or early in the morning, many residents report that noise is the worst in the middle of the night.

“It’s a stated goal of Massport to expand specifically the international flights – they see it as part of making Boston a more world-class city,” Houk said. “The result is people are going to be paying for that with nighttime noise.”

Small signs of progress

Though aircraft noise in Medford is not expected to decrease – and will likely get worse – in the next few months, the current study assessing options for noise abatement and deconcentrated flight paths could eventually provide some relief.

“This is a national issue – a lot of cities have been complaining to the FAA – but I think this is the first study the FAA has sanctioned,” Houk said. “They said, ‘We’ll use MIT and respect the results,’ and that gives us a lot more leverage than these communities that are saying, ‘Hey, we don’t like the noise, make it go away.’”

Preisner sees another potential upside to the increased airplane noise over the last several months: more people are now paying attention to the issue.

“The runway closure was a major shock to everybody, it really motivated people to figure out who to call,” he said. “If you look at the complaint volumes for June, July and August, they are through the roof by historical standards.”

Going forward, Aberg said the Logan Aircraft-Noise Working Group plans to continue raising awareness about aircraft noise, ensure that the MIT study results in noise decreases for all affected communities, lobby elected officials and partner with other Boston area groups and communities across the country also dealing with airplane noise.

“Our instinct is to try to find an equitable solution for everyone, because we can’t live with one area being impounded with this problem forever and everyone going about their business,” Aberg said. “It is really super complex, but it can be done."