On Thursday, the City Council passed legislation that may limit certain helicopter flights from city-run heliports, starting in December 2029. Originally introduced by the Bronx Council Member Amanda Farias as an attempt to reduce noise, the bill means that over the next four years, the City's Economic Development Corporation will have to send reports to the Council and to the Mayor's office "on the percentage of helicopter flights landing and leaving city-run heliports" that do not meet noise standards set by the FAA.
The bill passed nearly unanimously, with only Brooklyn's pistol brandisher Inna Vernikov voting against it. In 2023, New Yorkers made over 59,000 helicopter noise complaints to the City's 311 system, according to the City's Open Data.
But the bill, according to the Council's own data, will only apply to the 9 percent of “non-essential” helicopter flights using the EDC-run City heliports that don't already meet the federal noise standards, which excludes “essential flights” by law enforcement, military, film crews and press. You know, the essentials.
The bill has taken on somewhat new significance in the wake of a sightseeing helicopter crashing into the Hudson River earlier this month, killing the pilot and the five passengers on board. If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that it's sad when people die. This legislation would limit flights like that—but only if they fall into that small fraction of particularly noisy flights. Arias called the bill "a bold step."
A City Hall spokesperson told Gothamist that the administration understands calls from the public and from certain advocacy groups to ban helicopters in the wake of the crash, but emphasized that any policy decisions should be informed by the ongoing federal investigation. (At the time of the crash, Mayor Adams told reporters that helicopter flights are "a safe way of traveling," and "part of our economic ecosystem.")
So if the helicopter that's been flying over your apartment falls into that small fraction of "nonessential" flights, you may see some relief… in four years. "The noise and emissions have real health impacts, from insomnia to high blood pressure, to impaired cognitive function and long-term memory loss," Farias said in a press conference following the bill's approval.
It sure seems like it could make things safer for the people in the helicopters, too.