Helicopter excursions round New York Metropolis can be banned below a federal invoice just lately launched by native Congress members — lower than a month after a deadly crash killed a Spanish household and their pilot.
The proposed bipartisan Bettering Helicopter Security Act — launched Could 5 by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) — would bar all “non-essential” helicopters inside a 20-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty.
The invoice — concentrating on flights used for recreation, tourism and luxurious commuting – was launched after the tragic crash within the Hudson River that killed a vacationer mother, dad and their three younger youngsters, in addition to the pilot, April 10. The laws would take impact 60 days after being signed into legislation.
“While we have consistently worked to address the impact of non-essential helicopters on our communities, last month’s tragic crash should be a clarion call for every level of government to take action on helicopter safety,” Menendez stated in a press release.
“Rising congestion of non-essential helicopters, coupled with regarding security information of air tourism operators, are inflicting a direct menace to public security.
“Along with my colleagues from New Jersey and New York, we’re doing what is necessary to prevent tragedies like this from happening again,” the rep stated.
Choppers that might nonetheless be allowed to fly across the metropolis below the invoice embody these utilized by police, catastrophe response, medical and different emergency crews and people employed for analysis, information and movie.
The Massive Apple sightseeing firm New York Helicopter Excursions shut down days after the lethal crash involving one in every of its choppers. New York Helicopter Excursions CEO Michael Roth confirmed to The Put up that his firm was ceasing operations on the demand of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The doomed helicopter was on its eighth flight of the day when it broke aside within the air and crashed into the Hudson, in response to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board. The final inspection date for the chopper was March 1.
After the crash, US Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY) applauded the transfer by the FAA however famous “much work remains to be done.”
Schumer stated the FAA should conduct extra inspections of vacationer helicopter corporations and contemplate different questions in regards to the trade going ahead.
The grassroots group Cease The Chop, which has searched for years to floor the town’s roughly 30,000 vacationer helicopter flights over environmental impacts and noise, hailed the federal invoice.
The proposal is “common sense federal legislation that will, when passed, finally put an end to the dangerous helicopter conditions in the New York metropolitan area,” the group stated in a press release.
Final month, the New York Metropolis Council handed a invoice banning non-essential helicopter flights from city-owned heliports except they meet FAA noise requirements, though the legislation gained’t take impact till December 2029.
Supporters of a tourist-chopper ban argue that the tragic incident final month wasn’t an remoted incident, with no less than 38 fatalities tied to helicopter crashes in New York Metropolis since 1977, in response to The Related Press.
“It was the latest in a long line of preventable tragedies in the New York metropolitan region’s increasingly crowded and poorly regulated airspace,” Nadler stated. “For much too lengthy, non-essential helicopter flights have endangered public security and shattered the peace of our neighborhoods.
We owe it to the victims, and to each resident residing beneath these flight paths, to place security first and stop future disasters.”
— Extra reporting by David Propper
