NYC politicians are making the call to ban sightseeing helicopters after the east river crash. Bloomberg on the other hand does not agree. He says sightseeing helicopters bring in about $150 million of revenue for the city a year. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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It’s time to ban sightseeing helicopters in New York City, a group of Manhattan and Brooklyn pols said Wednesday after the latest tourist tragedy.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Councilmembers Brad Lander, Steve Levin and Gale Brewer want to ground all the tourist choppers buzzing around in the city’s airspace.
Tuesday’s crash in the East River, which killed a British tourist celebrating her 40th birthday, “should send us a clear message in flashing neon lights,” Nadler said.
“Sightseeing and nonessential helicopters are dangerous, unnecessary – and not worth it.”
In 2009, nine people died when a small plane collided with a helicopter full of Italian tourists over the Hudson.
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents Manhattan’s East Side where the chopper crashed Tuesday, asked the FAA to look into more regulation of helicopters over New York.
“Since 1983, we’ve had 28 helicopter crashes in New York, with at least 19 fatalities. Helicopter traffic is the wild west of aviation,” she said.
“Helicopters are subject to much less scrutiny than other types of aircraft, and they are not subject to air traffic control.
“The FAA can’t kick the can down the road any longer – they must take a serious look at the potential dangers posed by having so many helicopters hovering over the most densely-populated city in the nation.”
Mayor Bloomberg, who owns a helicopter, has made it clear he will not ground the choppers, which the industry says contributes about $150 million a year to the city’s economy.
Three or four people die in car wrecks a day and the city has not banned cars, he said.
The Manhattan heliports at W. 30th Street, Wall Street and E. 34th Street see a total of about 100,000 flights a year. They include tourism, news coverage, medical flights, emergency operations and corporate flights.
Jeffery Smith, chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, said the chopper in Tuesday’s crash was not a regular tourist flight, but a veteran pilot taking up family friends visiting from Australia and Portugal.
Smith said tourist jaunts have strict rules and regulations that differ from general aviation flights.
“Any banning of tourist flights would not have prevented this tragedy,” he said.
A 15-member National Transportation Safety Board team is trying to figure out what happened to the Bell 206 Jet Ranger, which was being flown by an extremely experienced pilot.
