Helicopter Traffic a Growing Issue

The increasing number of helicopters flying over Brooklyn Heights creates an intensifying quality-of-life issue due to the growing noise disturbance and raises serious safety concerns.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) plans to transfer all tourist helicopter service from the West 30th Street Heliport to the Wall Street Heliport to the city-owned Downtown Manhattant Heliport (DMH) at Pier 6 in the East River in Manhattan. This will exacerbate what many Brooklyn Heights residents feel is an already excessive amount of noisy and potentially dangerous low-flying helicopters above the neighborhood.

     The Wall Street Heliport in the East River

We live in a beautiful neighborhood in the heart of a metropolis and we expect our environment to include noise. But visits to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park are spoiled by the often constant droning of DMH operations. And what happens when the level and frequency of the noise prevents you from working at home? Unfortunately, no governmental agency has exercised jurisdiction over helicopter noise issues affecting our neighborhood, and the helicopter activity on the East River literally flies below the radar of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). That's where the BHA enters the picture by organizing the community and its response to this growing issue.

The BHA recently attended a meeting with the FAA, the EDC, and local elected representatives to share our concern and determine the best course of action. The first step will be to compile the facts on the number of flyovers and incremental decibel levels, which may require consulting an acoustical engineer to collect data from several Heights locations. We are working with our elected officials to obtain DMH operations data from the EDC and to get the City to take indoor and outdoor noise readings. We seek a ban on all non-essential (tourist) helicopter traffic at the DMH.

Interested in Helping?
As a first step, we encourage you to call 311 to lodge a complaint. Keep track of your complaint #. You should also send an email to patricia.ornst@nycedc.com, and please cc the BHA at info@thebha.org. (Ms. Ornst is the EDC’s Director of Aviation.) 

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Get more info:
The BHA went on the record in September with a statement on the issue before the NYC City Council and a letter to the NYC Economic Development Corporation.
BHA_Statement_on_Helicopter_Safety.pdf
Letter_to_EDC_re_Helicopter_Traffic.pdf

The New York Post covered this developing story in late October. The Brooklyn Heights Blog weighed in the next day, sparked a lively community conversation, and conducted a quick poll that found that 78% (of 156 respondents) agreed with the BHA position.
New York Post (Oct. 25)
Brooklyn Heights Blog (Oct. 26)