November 4, 2009

Helicopters over Brooklyn

As if the current helicopter traffic and noise that is generated by them flying over us is not bad enough, stating in the spring of 2010 all of West Side helicopter traffic will be transferred to the Downtown Manhattan Heliport which is right across from the Promenade in Central Heights. This brilliant solution came to the city and the FAA after the residents of the West Side of Manhattan sued and won to bar all helicopter traffic on that side of the city. This decision will add some extra 23,000 flights to our already noisy neighborhoods!! Most of these flights are private tour companies taking tourists on sightseeing trips. Our Mayor is under the impression that the revenue that is gained from this enterprise is worth keeping in spite of the fact that his tax payers base has been against this business for over two decades. As each side of Manhattan has successfully gotten rid of helicopters- flying,landing and idling next to their homes- he is now sending them to us as if we are deaf and blind and will not mind living in a city that sounds as if it's at war. There has been some press coverage in the last couple of months on this unfortunate decision but that's not enough and we should work harder to prevent this from becoming a reality.
There are other problems with helicopters buzzing by our homes aside from the unwanted sounds that they make and that is that all flights under 1100 feet are unregulated and undocumented. Anyone can buy or rent a helicopter thus increasing chances of a collision above our homes as well as going to the extreme such as throwing a bomb from the air. The law now is to "see and avoid" which is ridiculous since we have more street laws for car driving then helicopter flying. Clearly this "see and avoid" policy did not work well in August over the Hudson. If you agree that this is a problem and that it will only get worse for all of us than please help either by calling 311 and reporting the excessive noise or the frequency of flights that you may notice in your neighborhood whether it be Central Heights, Red Hook or Dumbo or make suggestions as to how we may stop and eliminate this from becoming 'Our Hell'.

Posted by vvcameron at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
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