Locals living around BER Airport in Berlin / Brandenburg are protesting plans to widen a hairpin bend which regularly causes plane passengers to vomit.

BER curve is so tight it makes passengers vomit

Plane passengers travelling eastwards out of BER Airport in Berlin / Brandenburg have long been subject to a sharp, queezy bend shortly after take-off. 

So common is it for passengers to be sick from the tight turn motion, that the officially named Hoffmannkurve (Hoffmann curve) has been informally dubbed the “Kotzkurve” (“vomit curve”).

Because BER will start using a new navigation system, which should help planes stick to designated routes, the air traffic curve will be broadened. The new navigation system is set to launch in October 2025.

Locals protest BER plans to widen “Kotzkurve”

Despite the unfortunate consequences of the Kotzkurve, it has its benefits. The curve’s current bend means that noise pollution from flights continually taking off is limited for locals living in nearby Zeuthen, Wildau and Schulzendorf. However, the plans to broaden the curve include adding a new “tolerance area” above residential streets.

Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), responsible for air traffic control in the federal republic, denies that the new route will mean more fly-over noise. The company claims that changes will “solely affect the chart display system” and insists that “plans will not be changed or delayed”.

Locals refuse to accept that the new route won’t result in more planes flying over their houses, with over 7.000 people signing a protest letter within several days of the plans being announced.

“We feel unseen by the DFS,” Zeuthen mayor Philipp Martens (The Left) said in an interview with regional public broadcaster rbb. 

The route is yet to be confirmed by the DFS, which will submit it to the Federal Office for Flight Safety (Bundesaufsichtsamt für Flugsicherung) on February 23 for approval.

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