Thousands of people in Broward are now realizing that the airport that by car might be 15 or 20 minutes from home, is much closer the way a crow — or airplane — flies.

That means scores of residents are now in the flight path for jets roaring toward landings or screaming away in departures. Jets are coming in over parts of Tamarac, Sunrise, Plantation, Davie andFort Lauderdale, and flying out over Dania Beach and a small part of Hollywood.

Almost 4,000 people live in the new high-noise zone, and many thousands of others are enduring new jet rumblings as well.

The main runway, which runs east-west, is closed about 20 hours of the day for a $20 million set of improvements mostly aimed at accommodating more jet traffic. A second, $791 million main runway also is in the works, for the same reason.