Complaints to 311 about helicopter noise in New York City are soaring.
There has been a seventeen-fold increase in calls over the past five years about the constant chop-chopping over neighborhoods, according to city data. The City Council is currently considering two bills aimed at tackling the increased aerial traffic by banning non-essential helicopter flights from city-operated helipads.
However, Gothamist tracked helicopter flights over Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start of summer travel in our region – and found that a majority did not take off from these sites. And the city has little control over rules and regulations that govern airspace, meaning it’s unlikely the Council’s legislation would put a dent in the number of complaints stemming from helicopter traffic, which business leaders are banking on increasing as New Yorkers look for more convenient travel options to airports and other locations.
The City Council bills specifically target the two helipads it has authority over: the ones operated by New York City’s Economic Development Corporation at East 34th Street and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in Lower Manhattan. One bill would ban all non-essential flights (think sightseeing tours and commuters) from the two locations, while the other measure would ban “traditional” helicopters in the hopes that seemingly quieter and more futuristic eVTOL aircraft will supplant them in the coming years.
But at a recent Council hearing on the proposed legislation, the Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit, revealed that just 4% of 311 complaints about helicopter noise were about flights originating from those two city-operated heliports. The other 96% come from other heliports in the region, according to Jennifer Sun, executive vice president for planning at the EDC.
A Gothamist analysis of flight data from Memorial Day Weekend, supplied by the live flight tracker FlightRadar24, shows that more than two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 helicopter flights recorded that weekend began at commercial heliports and airports like Newark, Linden and East Hampton Town Airports. Just over a quarter of helicopter flights took off from the city-run Downtown Manhattan Heliport.
Mark Young, the president the South Midwood Residents’ Association, is pushing the city to do something about the noise. The neighborhood group has been tracking helicopter flights over the area through publicly available apps. Like Gothamist’s analysis, their data showed that most helicopters flying overhead do not come from city-operated helipads. Adding to their agita, their analysis shows that most of the choppers fly at altitudes well below Federal Aviation Administration guidelines – about 1,000 feet in most cases – resulting in more noise than if the helicopters flew higher.
While Young said he supports the legislation making its way through the City Council, he added that he doesn’t think it will stop the helicopters flying over that part of the borough.
“We support our colleagues in the city,” Young said from a backyard near Brooklyn College in mid-June. “But to be very blunt, those two pieces of legislation do not impact the millions of people that live in the outer boroughs, particularly Brooklyn.”
A police helicopter – which would not be affected under the two City Council bills – flew overhead during the interview.
According to data collected by the South Midwood Residents’ Association, many of the flights that pass over Young’s neighborhood come from helipads in New Jersey, which the city and state are powerless to stop since the airspace is governed by the Federal Aviation Administration.
City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who sits on the Committee for Economic Development, acknowledged the city cannot solve the issue alone.
“New Jersey makes a lot of money,” Brewer said at a Council hearing in April, referring to profits generated by helicopter operations there. “I tried to stop it. It ain’t going to happen by itself without the federal government.”
Congressional representatives from New York have also said they support banning non-essential flights from helipads in the city. Last year, U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman penned a letter to city and state officials calling for the end to non-essential flights.
A spokesperson for Nadler said the representative supports the Council’s measures, because “something is better than nothing.”
They said the ultimate solution would be passing federal legislation to have the FAA restrict non-essential helicopter travel in New York City’s airspace. Partisanship in Congress, however, has made that difficult, they said.
The 30th Street Heliport in Manhattan is the origin of many flights over Young’s part of Brooklyn. The facility is outside the city’s regulatory authority because it is operated by the Hudson River Park Trust, which is governed by a board of directors appointed by city and state officials. About 13% of the helicopter flights analyzed by Gothamist took off from 30th Street.
The helipad is also the launching spot for an increasing number of helicopters because it serves as the headquarters for Blade, a relatively new company that operates short-distance passenger flights as well as a thriving human organ transport business.
Blade – which began running passenger flights in 2014 – offers rides from 30th Street to JFK Airport for $145 to $250 for a one trip. The company also offers flights to the Hamptons.
Blade does not release data on the number of flights it operates, but most eagle-eyed residents and lawmakers contend that these types of commuter flights from Blade – and other companies like Uber – are a major contributor to increased helicopter traffic in New York City.
Blade CEO Rob Wiesenthal said the company is filling a need given New York City’s aging ground infrastructure.
“These streets were designed in the 1700s and 1800s.” Wiesenthal said. “The roads haven’t changed, but the amount of people have changed. Transportation is going to have another layer kind of between a commercial jet and a car on the ground,” Wiesenthal said.
Wiesenthal said Blade has committed to switching to quieter and emissions-free electric eVTOL aircraft in the coming years. When asked for a timeline on when that might happen, he said New York City is likely to see “exhibition” flights between the heliport and the airport by 2026 or 2027.
Wiesenthal said he hopes that as community leaders, politicians and the market see the potential for quieter and cleaner aircraft, it will facilitate the transition away from their noisier and dirtier counterparts.
In the meantime Wiesenthal said Blade is committed to other traditional tactics to be sensitive to people on the ground, and agreed to host Gothamist on a 10-minute flight to JFK Airport to experience their operations firsthand.
The view from the air as Gothamist travels to JFK Airport via helicopter.
Sean Carlson/Gothamist
The path we took matched many of the flights we tracked over Memorial Day weekend. We took off from West 30th Street Heliport in Manhattan and flew over Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, eventually hooking south towards the airport. The return trip from JFK went southwest across Jamaica Bay and then north, following Flatbush Avenue – over the very residents Gothamist spoke to for this story – back to Manhattan.
Blade pointed out that both the route, and the flying altitude, were dictated by air traffic control at JFK based on other aircraft and weather conditions in the area.
The other passengers on the flight to the airport included a family from Greenwich Village. The father, Dan Wallace, told Gothamist that taking a flight out of JFK is now a better option than Newark in New Jersey or LaGuardia in Queens because of the easier commute for a family with small children.
“Uber has gotten so expensive that there’s no difference in cost,” Wallace said, while noting the time and stress of getting to the airport in a taxi with a car seat. “It’s easier to manage the naps.”