WASHINGTON — A panel of federal judges questioned why the Federal Aviation Administration did not consult with top-level Phoenix officials prior to flight path changes at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and challenged the city over its slow response to the alterations during a hearing Friday.Attorneys representing the FAA, the city and a coalition of neighborhood groups made their case to a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Phoenix and the residents of historic neighborhoods want the FAA to revert to flight paths used prior to a September 2014 change in take-off routes.

At the center of the judges’ questioning of the federal agency was why the FAA had consulted a “low-level” employee with no policy-making authority ahead of the proposed changes, rather than someone higher up in the city. The hearing lasted just over an hour.

The FAA changed flight paths as part of the national NextGen program aimed at improving safety and efficiency. After the changes took place, thousands of residents complained about the noise and the city eventually filed a lawsuit against the agency.

Lane McFadden, a Department of Justice attorney representing the federal agency, argued that the FAA had consulted with a representative from the city’s aviation department, who the agency believed was qualified and would have passed along the information to someone higher up.

“You notified somebody who had no authority,” Judge Judith Rogers said. “The rest of the city is totally oblivious to this plan and the first notion they have is when they hear the planes come.”

Rogers asked more probing questions than the other two justices, who only occasionally broke into her rapid-fire line of questioning for queries of their own.

“It’s sort of a stealth operation,” Rogers said about the way the FAA had handled the process.

Sky Harbor flight path draws complaints from Phoenix neighborhoods

Attorneys for the city and the Story Preservation Association neighborhood group also faced tough questioning, as the justices grilled them on why they waited so long to file a lawsuit against the FAA.

The city filed the lawsuit in June 2015, nearly 10 months after the FAA changed the flight paths. The FAA’s attorney argued that the legal action should have happened within 60 days of the implementation of the changes and said the window for taking action was long closed.

“The city’s mistake was not to petition right away,” McFadden argued.

Attorneys arguing against the FAA — John Putnam, who represented Phoenix, and Matthew Adams who represented the Story Preservation Association — said the lengthy negotiating process led them to believe the FAA was open to changes and that they did not want to try another route unless they had to.

Following the September 2014 flight-plan changes there were a series of public meetings and letters sent back-and-forth between the two parties.

“Don’t you have an obligation to file within 60 days if you’re objecting to that effort?” Judge David Sentelle asked.

“We also have an obligation to exhaust administrative remedies and only bring in action when it’s final,” Putnam responded.

The city finally filed a lawsuit in June 2015 after Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher received a letter from FAA Regional Administrator Glen Martin. The letter addressed some short-term path adjustments but did not list any major changes.

Two months after the city filed a lawsuit, several historic neighborhood associations and individual citizens filed a petition of their own. That petition was consolidated with the city’s lawsuit.

“We have reasonable grounds, we believe, for a later filing date,” Adams said. “We were told that decision-making was ongoing.”

The justices took the case under advisory. No details about the timeline for a decision were immediately available.