FAA Sluggish to Implement Change, says NY Times
[Photo by David Duprey (NY Times)]
In the wake of the Turboprop crash in Buffalo, NY, on February 12, scrutiny is being applied to speed at which the FAA adopts changes suggested by the National Transportation Safety Board. A NY Times article concludes that the FAA, due to its entrenchment in bureaucracy, often times takes years to implement changes suggested by the NTSB. As an example of this, the Times cites the recommendation given by the NTSB to the FAA after an airliner exploded over Long Island in 1996, noting that recommendation has yet to be put into practice. According to the NY Times, “The safety board says there currently are 429 outstanding recommendations, of which 146 are more than five years old.”
Details from Jan. 2009 Helicopter Task Force Meeting with EDC
Synopsis provided by Joy Held of the HELICOPTER NOISE COALITION OF NEW YORK CITY
414 E. 64th St. #6J
New York, NY 10065-7144
212-628-3126
Re: Helicopter Task Force Meeting 1/22/09
1. A Helicopter Task Force reconvened on January 22, 2009, at the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) after a hiatus of many years. City Council Member Gale Brewer and Patricia Ornst, VP for Aviation at EDC, organized the meeting, which Ms. Brewer chaired. Attendees (by invitation only) included stakeholders on the issue of adverse helicopter impacts on city residents: FAA, EDC, Eastern Region Helicopter Council (ERHC – industry trade organization), heliport managers, helicopter companies and pilots, police department, elected officials (federal – state – city), community boards, Hudson River Park Trust and Friends of HRPT, community organizations and city residents (mostly Upper West Side Manhattan but also Upper East Side, Harlem, Staten Island, Brooklyn).
Ms. Brewer called on five people to speak after Ms. Ornst welcomed the group. Leo Prusak, District Manager, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mentioned the FAA-brokered helicopter route changes over Long Island’s North Shore and over Staten Island. Laurie Silberfield, General Counsel for the Hudson River Park Trust, summarized the court settlement regarding the West 30th St. heliport (West 30th St.): take-offs and landings are capped at 41,250 (25,000 air tours) for the year beginning June 1, 2008 and reduced to 26,050 (12,900) for the period 6/1/09 – 3/31/10, with all air tours ending by 3/31/10 and the heliport subsequently closed.
Patricia Wagner, manger of the East 34th St. heliport (East 34th St.) stated that operations there (take offs or landings) are capped at 28,800 per year with 23,300 actual operations in 2008 and 25,600 in 2007. Last year U.S. Helicopter began scheduled service to airports from East 34th St. The heliport is open 8am – 8pm weekdays and closed weekends plus Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Thanksgiving (excepting emergency flights). The heliport has 4 ½ helipads. East 34th St. and the Downtown Manhattan heliport (DTM – at Wall St.) are on city property while West 30th St. is on state property (which is slated to part of the Hudson River Park).
Robert Grotell, managing director of the Downtown Manhattan Heliport and consultant to the Eastern Region Helicopter Council discussed operations at DTM. The heliport is open 7am – 7pm Mon.- Fri., Sat. 9am – 7pm, and Sundays & holidays 9am – 5pm with air tours taking place 9am -7pm Mon – Fri. First Flight manages the facility since Nov. 11, 2008 – a ten-year concession (previously managed by the Port Authority of NY & NJ). DTM accommodates corporate flight, air tours and law enforcement flight (U.S. presidents land here).
Jeff Smith, chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, the industry & trade association for the Eastern U.S., gave a history of ERHC activities. He said that currently 17 companies advertise air tours of Manhattan; ERHC has an Air Tour committee and advocates water routes for air tours. He mentioned voluntary agreements between longstanding air tour operators and the FAA to restrict flights to water routes.
The meeting was then opened for questions and discussion. Community residents from the Upper West Side complained of constant, debilitating helicopter noise along the Hudson River, East-West over Manhattan, and over Central Park with some residents experiencing overflights at the rate of one/minute during peak periods lasting many hours. One resident inquired re the possibility of restricting the airspace over Manhattan or NYC – Prusak said that that requires and act of Congress (I believe the FAA authorized flight bans over the White House, Camp David, Los Alamos, etc.) and asked re similar policies abroad.
I advocated that Mayor Bloomberg reinstate the ban on helicopter air tours from city heliports promulgated by Mayor Giuliani. There was a discussion of the economic role of air tours. I stated that NYC derives little revenue from these flights, that tourists will come regardless, and that there are many other ways to tour NYC.
2. The agenda was skewed to favor the industry. Whereas EDC had ample time to trace the history of their activities, no equivalent time was afforded the community to address the history of helicopter complaints – protest and the resulting developments over the past 15 years in New York City (I was asked beforehand “not to make a speech”, yet EDC could). Absent this history and given the turnover in attendees from past Task Force meetings, the community and electeds are back to ground zero, much to the advantage of the industry. The discussion was a-historical. Neither EDC nor Council Member Brewer sought to place recent community outrage in historical context: NYC community board resolutions to ban helicopter overflights, the Giuliani administration air tour ban, NYC Heliport Master Plan recommendations to mitigate helicopter adverse impacts, the Natural Resource Defense Council tri-state helicopter impact study entitled, “Unnecessary Noise”, the FAA national study of non-military helicopter community impacts, the House bill – Helicopter Noise Control and Safety Act, other bills at the state level, the Helicopter Noise Coalition of New York City (HNC) lawsuit to close East 34th St, and the HNC helicopter noise study, the federal appellate court decisions giving local authorities the right to ban helicopter and float plane air tours to limit noise impacts, the Sotomayer decision regarding caps and curfews at East 34th St., voluntary air tour route changes, the City Council Helicopter Noise hearing, the enormous outpouring of community protest over helicopter noise – air fumes and health and safety threats, etc.
3. Prior Task Force meeting were open to anyone wishing to attend (the total size wasn’t appreciably larger than this gathering). The invitation-only policy of the group bars community members and elected officials with valuable input from attending.
4. This meeting focused largely on air tours over Manhattan including Central Park. Hopefully later meetings can expand the focus to encompass media helicopters, police – corporate – commercial flights, etc.
5. Industry entreaties “to cooperate” and the consideration of bandaid solutions (move the routes to other neighborhoods!) belies a hidden agenda to placate the community while leaving all industry flights intact. It is difficult to envision how such limited remedies can address such far-ranging grievances. Hopefully more comprehensive approaches can be developed in future.
6. Residents can raise issues for the Task Force of address complaints to:
Patricia Ornst, Director of Aviation
Economic Development Corporation
110 William St.
New York, NY
212/ 619-5000
and/or
Jesse Bodine, Director of Constituent Services & Policies
Gale Brewer, City Council Member’s Office
563 Columbus Avenue
NY, NY 10024
212/ 873-0282
212/ 873-0279
7. You may also address complaints to 311 (calls routed to EDC); your elected officials – Congress, Senate, mayor, borough president, state senate & assembly, city council; community boards; TV stations (if media related); city and local newspapers; and ERHC- 845/ 353-6050.
Hellicopter Task Force meeting
Preliminary reports about the meeting indicate that it didn’t go so well, for the community members who voiced concerns about noise. Details forthcoming.
