> flight paths are a known known. Maps exist. Noise level maps exist. Airport locations, runway directions, departing and arriving flight paths (and altitudes!) all exist.

I think it's not so unusual for people to just ... forget about this. Especially if they've never experienced it, or if the house isn't close to an airport at all. Moving can be a stressful experience; not infrequently moving has some sort of time constraint (family expansion, new job, etc.) or is due to a bad experience (divorce/breakup being a common example). There are loads of variables, and can't possibly check up on every one of them.

I once lived in an apartment where I couldn't properly open the windows. Of course I had a viewing before I agreed to rent the place, but it never occurred to me to check if I can open the windows. Not being open the windows is annoying on hot summer days. Not being able to sleep at night had a massive impact on the quality of your life. There have been a number of studies about the effects of noise pollution, and it's a lot more harmful than people think. Housing and a good night's sleep are basic human needs; even more so than health care. As I said before, we can't always need to accommodate everyone, but I don't think that concerns about them should be dismissed lightly.

Ideally, the landlord/agency should have an obligation to find out and tell people these sort of things. Maybe that's already the case in some jurisdictions? IMHO selling people a house above a plane route without informing them is like selling people a house where you know the roof is leaking but aren't telling people. Do you check if the roof is leaking? Do you ask? Probably not. And the roof is just one example, there are many more things to check. To have a free market you must have good access to information, so you can make an informed decision.

Also remember that situations change; here is actually an example from the D.C. area (not sure how related that is to this one, perhaps it is?): https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/former-astronaut-fil...

> The problem for Vittori's neighborhood is compounded by the fact that the airport recently adopted a new flight navigation system known as NextGen to help cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel consumption. This brought planes directly over his Georgetown neighborhood.

Other airports have massively expanded, and/or are misleading about the information they give out. A good example of this is Amsterdam airport (Schiphol), which had expanded a lot in the last 40 years, and has been misleading people about how much noise the planes make.

Honestly, I think blaming the tenants for "not doing their homework" is just not very constructive. As I mentioned before, someone will live there, and someone will have the draw the shortest straw. I don't have a good solution for airplane noise, but I don't think that "just don't live there" – which is basically your proposed solution – is really a solution at all. It's just waiting for the sucker who will forget to check the airplane paths, or the person who just can't afford anything else.

> Or.. move somewhere else?

Not always so easy depending on the area and requirements (e.g. closeness to job etc.), and not everyone has the money to just move whenever.

In my case, the housing market is crazy in the city I was living in (Bristol, UK); I tried finding something else but there wasn't too much on the market that fit my requirements, and it was a lot of effort.