 An association of residents living near Paris's Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Wednesday denounced the noise pollution generated by the giant Airbus A380, after the new airliner's maiden flight. French acoustics expert Joel Ravenel, a member of the Advocnar group representing those who live near Charles de Gaulle, told AFP he had recorded a maximum sound level of 88 decibels just after the aircraft took off from near the south-western city of Toulouse. The figure makes the world's largest commercial jet "one of the loudest planes that will for decades fly over the heads of the four million people living in the area" outside Paris, Advocnar said in a statement. Ravenel said sound levels near Charles de Gaulle airport normally reached about 40 decibels. Journalists watching the Airbus A380's first flight at Toulouse airport, however, noted how quiet the take-off and landing had seemed. Tens of thousands of spectators cheered as the A380 touched down at the airport near Toulouse, home of the European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie, after a test flight of three hours and 54 minutes. |