Blame Wealthy Hamptons Residents
What sounded like a motorcycle at full throttle above their Port
Washington cape first caught the attention of Donna Szewczyk and
her husband, Tom, last fall.
By the following summer, a steady procession of helicopters
buzzed their home from morning until night, rattling their windows,
their china and their nerves, Donna Szewczyk told Newsday.
"We feel like we're living next door to a heliport," she said
recently.
But the Szewczyks are not alone. From Manhattan to Montauk,
residents have echoed the same chorus of frustration in reaction to
the rising numbers of helicopters crisscrossing the skies of Long
Island communities.
Reacting to the growing concern over noise and safety, local and
state politicians are brainstorming with the Federal Aviation
Administration and industry officials to come up with a plan to
better regulate helicopter use there.
At East Hampton, helicopter flights have doubled in the last
decade, and at the Westhampton Beach airport, helicopter use jumped
35 percent from last year, officials said.
"Increasing numbers of our residents are frustrated by the lack
of consideration shown by the helicopter industry toward
residential communities," said North Hempstead Supervisor Jon
Kaiman. "If they are not willing to regulate themselves, the
federal government should regulate them and impose penalties."
Critics say helicopter travel is practically unregulated by the
FAA, even though that agency alone has jurisdiction over airspace.
Helicopter pilots fly on routes that are recommended by the FAA for
safety, efficiency and noise abatement, but in the end, those
routes are voluntary, officials said.
Only when directly within an airport's airspace are helicopter
pilots asked to conform to a flight path, according to the
story.
Helicopters flying across the island to the Hamptons are using
three main routes; the South Shore, mid-island and the North Shore,
which is the most-direct route and the mostly heavily flown.
This is particularly true of Suffolk
communities such as Smithtown, Port Jefferson, Rocky Point and
Greenlawn. Nassau communities including Floral Park, New Hyde Park,
Manhasset and Glen Cove are hit the hardest, according to New York
Senator Charles Schumer.
Officials in Southold, long bothered by the noise, have proposed
a law that would bar helicopters from coming within 3,000 feet of
the ground. "Helicopters have become an insidious problem
throughout the entire town," said Southold Supervisor Scott
Russell.
Wealth is apparently a key factor behind the increase in
helicopter use, say government officials, residents and helicopter
company owners. Some said the weak dollar has increased tourism on
Long Island. Others say Wall Street executives, looking for ways
around the choked highways to the Hamptons, find that helicopters
save them time and money.
This summer, one luxury-travel firm advertised round-trip
helicopter service from the 34th Street heliport in Manhattan to
East Hampton Airport at $1,600. Rates for the service from New York
City to the Hamptons range from several hundred dollars to even
pricier summer packages in the tens of thousands.
"Noise from low-flying helicopters has been left unabated for
far too long," Schumer said, noting this past summer was one of the
worst ever. "Now is the time to act."