On Tuesday Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Judy Stanton commented about the BHA’s efforts to thwart helicopter noise from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (DMH) on our original Chop the Choppers post.
Stanton wrote:
We know that five helicopter companies run flights in and out of the DMH but we do not know the breakdown of users nor do we have the daily totals because nobody has the time here to sit on a bench and count them. Residents report that they are constantly overhead, hence “a war zone” atmosphere.
The BHA requested operations data from the NYCEDC for the DMH in order to understand just what is involved there. How many flights are logged in and out, and for what purpose? We still don’t have that answer.
BHB asked Robert Grotell, special advisor to Sacker Aviation Services, operators of DMH, who tells our Julie Kanfer, “As far as activity, in 2009, the heliport accommodated approximately 25,000 landings, which works out to an average of about 68 landings per day.”
That works out to roughly one landing every 7 minutes before the increase in activity on April 1, 2010.
He adds that last week’s activity, the first after all NYC helicopter tour operations moved to DMH, is in the process of being compiled and he will provide BHB that info when work has been completed.
The tour companies currently operating out of DMH are: Helicopter Flight Services, Liberty Helicopters, Inc., New York Helicopter Charter, Zip Aviation and Manhattan Helicopter. In addition, Grotell says that “transient” companies, like charters, coporate helicopters, and law enforcement also operate from DMH. However, he says that much more of their traffic comes from the tourist helicopter business.
Sign the Chop the Choppers petition, join the conversation and offer your own proposal here.
