Depending on where you’re watching a Blue Angels show in San Francisco, you could experience irreversible hearing loss during a single Fleet Week.
Airshows are inherently divisive no matter where they’re held in the United States. While the intent is to celebrate America’s military prowess and the men and women and nonbinary people who’ve served in its branches, airshows also serve as a reminder of war, genocide, colonialism, and — by no sheer coincidence — as examples of the country’s stance as an aggressive global superpower.
Airshows serve as sources of PTSD for refugees; are bemoaned by animal care experts and wildlife activists alike for their ability to cause pets, especially domesticated ones, enormous amounts of stress and, in the case of wildlife, habit-altering behaviors that could affect everything from foraging to matting patterns; airshows, too, can severely screw up your ability to hear clearly.
These aren’t anecdotes. All of the above serve as fact — repeatedly documented, time and time again. It’s a head-scratcher as to why these performances, ones that see F/A-18 fighter jets, a.k.a. “Super Hornet,” use 9,600 total gallons per show in San Francisco during Fleet Week, still exist above board.
If for no other reason, they should be barred (or, at least, offer more safety oversight for onlookers and audience members alike) for the sheer amount of clangor they produce. But how much and how strong that racket is can be hard to quantify … though not impossible.
City traffic and the general white noise of urban life produce around 75 decibels (dB), the universal and logarithmic unit used to measure sound levels, during commuting hours. Occasionally, that number might spike to 85 dB when factoring in loud construction activities … but that elevated upswing is likely temporary, and it would require a person to exist in that environment with unprotected hearing equipment for about eight consecutive hours to experience some level of enduring hearing loss.
We’re all pretty safe from such a fate.
Decibiles aren’t only logarithmic; they’re exponential, as well. What does this mean? For us auditory mortals, an increase of three dB represents a doubling of perceived sound intensity. Remember this as we wax cautionary about the sound volumes SF’s Blue Angels shows produce.
San Francisco’s unique climate, though frot with marine layers, is favorable for airshows. Our temperate weather and strong coastal winds mean dense cloud coverage is rare in the late morning, and early afternoon hours — giving a proverbial all-clear for fighter jets to safely perform “low show maneuvers.”
How low, exactly? San Francisco’s Blue Angels fly as low as 50 feet above our heads when performing “sneak passes.” It’s the aerial equivalent of an uncomfortably low-slung limbo bend.
Back to sound.
At cruising altitudes and speeds, which are conducted somewhere between 1,000 and 4,500 feet above sea level, fighter jets still make a ruckus, producing brief sounds on the ground beneath them that measure between 90 dB to 100 dB. Because, again, decibels are exponential units of measurement, that means even at the low end, pedestrians on the ground are hearing noises about four times louder than usual city traffic.
During a sneak pass, an F/A-18 fighter jet — the same classification as the military plane all Blue Angels fall under — produces between 120bdB to 130 dB during flyovers at about 50ft; the main variable of intensity is predicated on whether or not there was afterburn present and if that plane was taking off from a naval base or ship.
Immediate hearing loss at 120 dB is conceivable but uncommon. Temporary hearing loss at that level is, however, almost certain and could last for hours, even days. At 130 bB, it’s nearly certain an unprotected ear would experience irreversible hearing loss … as well as sharp pain … all under a single second upon registering the sound.
As of publishing, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends people should limit their exposure to 120dB sounds to 12 seconds per week, mitigating hearing loss that, like sun damage, compounds over time.
Each Blue Angels airshow in San Francisco during Fleet Week is roughly 45 minutes long; one is held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon around 2 p.m. during the early-October happening; not including practice flights, this means San Franciscans are subjected to 135 minutes of six F/A-18 fighter jets crisscrossing the seven-by-seven at low flyover heights each year — more than enough time to expose city inhabitants to 12 seconds of hearing-loss-causing sounds.
As a whole, people are losing their hearing more quickly; it’s a trend associated with more loud noise exposure and both in-ear and over-year audio listening (think our relatively newfound obsession with wearing headphones or earbuds, like AirPods, for hours a day [guilty as charged {written?}]).
If anyone ever gives you flack or flexes a hollow macho muscle for wearing protective hearing aids during upcoming Fleet Weeks, feel free to send them this. You might need to recommend it twice; they might not have heard you the first time.
Feature Image: Courtesy of Stu Berman [at]stuinsf on Instagram
[…] As we wrote earlier this week: The sound of these F/A-18 fighter jets can, without hyperbole, severely and permanently damage any onlooker’s hearing, especially if they are watching these shows without proper protection. Even those just minding their own business and staying in their own proverbial lane are subjected to possible hearing damage, as we learned just seconds of high decibel sounds produced by jet engines, especially when they perform “sneak passes” that can put these planes less than 100 feet above our heads. […]
Once again I am left shaking my head. Most people enjoy these Air Shows. Most people enjoy Rodeos and Most people enjoy a Circus. This has to be another one of those “only in San Francisco” stories! ( eye roll! )