Last year, Levi's Stadium couldn't get its grass right. This year, the stadium is causing problems for pilots.
According to NBC Bay Area, at least six airline pilots have filed complaints with the FAA in regards to Levi's Stadium. The pilots' problem with the 49ers' new stadium, which opened in August 2014, is that the bright lights make it difficult to land at San Jose's Mineta International Airport.
The stadium and the airport are less than five miles apart.
At night, the lights from the stadium are so bright that at least one pilot said it gave her a headache. In another FAA complaint, one pilot said the lights could cause "flicker vertigo" for pilots trying to land in San Jose.
"It was blinding. It was blinding," one pilot said of trying to land. "Incapacitating for sure ... I was kind of mad. We got on the ground and put the airplane away and wrote our reports and as we were sitting there we were just pretty fumed."
To give you an idea of just how close a plane can get to the stadium before it lands, here's a picture from a 49ers home game.
I think a Pterodactyl flew over Levi's Stadium on Sunday (via @RosenbergMerc, http://t.co/Km7EjZkQlY) pic.twitter.com/pTZqRfGpOU
— John Breech (@johnbreech) August 20, 2014
In a statement, the FAA said that most of the complaints about the bright lights came in 2014 when the lights were at their brightest because the scoreboard at the stadium was being calibrated.
The FAA says that the 49ers have agreed not to test the scoreboard at night anymore.
"We have a great appreciation for the FAA and have worked with them to establish protocols and guidelines in the event the boards need to be recalibrated," the 49ers said in a statement to NBC Bay Area. "Our top priority is always to maintain the highest level of safety and security for all guests visiting Levi's Stadium as well as the general public."
When Levi's Stadium was being built, the 49ers and the city of Santa Clara knew that potential issues could arise with San Jose's airport, so they teamed with the FAA to come up with a plan that was never made public.
Anyway, none of this should be a problem for Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium because the airspace around a Super Bowl stadium is closed on game day.
