Photo credit: Matthis Volquardsen from Pexels
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, and Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Melissa Elstein, Board of Directors, Stop the Chop NY/NJ
A recent article by Valeria Ricciulli, Curbed, examines New York City’s growing helicopter problem. Despite complaints about the “nonstop buzzing of helicopters,” which have “jumped by 130% between October 2019 and 2020,” residents exposed to intrusive helicopter noises have not seen successful actions taken by public officials nor the Federal Aviation Administration that would restrict “those helicopters buzzing around unregulated airspace.” Ricciulli notes that the helicopters are also dangerous, with 30 fatal helicopter wrecks in the city since 1982.
Helicopters occupying New York metropolitan airspace are dominated by tourism flights and commuter helicopters “zipping business executives to and from the Hamptons,” the local airports, and other locations. Yet, even with recent deadly helicopter crashes and voluminous noise complaints from residents, “no city or state regulation has been able to curb helicopter traffic.” Yes, a 2016 NYC industry agreement states that sightseeing helicopters based at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport cannot fly over land, nor on Sundays, and restricts those sightseeing tours to 30,000 flights per year, but this agreement does not apply to the many tourist helicopters that depart from New Jersey or Westchester, New York.
Stop the Chop NY/NJ is a nonprofit, volunteer led organization and wide based coalition that has been calling for the passage of introduced legislation that would stop the noise, as well as the air pollution, emanating from these non-essential tourist and commuter helicopters. The organization has stressed that noise and air pollution are hazardous to health and well being, which is supported by a growing body of research linking noise to adverse health effects. They also point to the risks to life and property with so many low-flying helicopters over the country’s most densely populated city-–not to mention the security and terrorism risk of a possibly hijacked helicopter being used as a weapon of mass destruction as tragically happened on 9/11 with airplanes.
Many agree, as their recent petition has garnered over 6,300 signatures. The petition calls for the FAA to regulate NYC’s airspace and ban nonessential helicopters as defined in “The Helicopter Safety Act of 2021 – H.R. 1643” introduced by NY Congressmembers Carolyn B. Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velazquez in March of this year.
This Bill needs more cosponsors, including the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus. Unfortunately, without federal legislation or FAA action, “There’s No One in Charge of New York’s Noisy Helicopters” as Ricciulli’s article is entitled. We urge Congress to step up to the plate.
Melissa Elstein, a nonpracticing attorney, is a yoga, qigong, and ballet teacher who has been advocating on environmental issues such as plastic pollution, zero waste, composting, fracking, urban street tree care, climate change, and helicopter noise pollution as a board member of the grassroots nonprofits the West 80s Neighborhood Association and Stop The Chop NY/NJ.
