Pols: Ban all tourist helicopters

May 16, 2011

By Kate Briquelet

The Brooklyn Paper

All tourist helicopter flights must be banned from Brooklyn skies because city officials have failed to stop the window-rocking, sanity-testing chopper noise from bombarding waterfront neighborhoods, locals demanded on Sunday.

“Enough is enough!” said state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights), who was joined by other elected officials and residents on Sunday in demanding an end to the noise. “We need to stop the endless parade of tourist helicopter flights over our neighborhoods.”

The battle over choppers began in 2010, when a helipad on the West Side of Manhattan shut down, forcing choppers to the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, which is opposite Brooklyn Heights. After noise complaints, the Economic Development Corporation, which oversees the helipad, instituted a no-fly zone over Brooklyn Heights, but that only moved the noise to Governors Island, and then to Red Hook.

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