I, the undersigned, for the reasons listed below, urge New Jersey-based federal, state and local officials and elected representatives to ban nonessential (i.e., sightseeing and commuter) helicopters from New Jersey’s airspace and adjacent waterways.

NONESSENTIAL HELICOPTER TRAFFIC CAUSES HARMFUL NOISE OVER OUR HOMES, SCHOOLS, AND PARKS:

Residents of numerous New Jersey cities and towns, such as Hoboken, Jersey City, Weehawken, West New York, Fort Lee, Guttenburg, North Bergen, Newark, and Edgewater are inundated by helicopter traffic on a daily basis. The incessant din and rumbling vibrations from low-flying flights over buildings, homes, parks, schools and open spaces disturb residents’ quiet enjoyment of their homes and neighborhoods and create repetitive, daily noise stress. Studies show that sustained exposure to noise poses threats to physical and mental health, including hearing loss, sleep disruption, and cardiovascular and endocrine diseases, and exacerbates anxiety and depression. Both children and adults risk cognitive decline.

Popular urban parks and green spaces in Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, the Palisades, and other municipalities are almost directly beneath the flight paths of sightseeing and commuter flights that originate from New Jersey heliports/helipads in Kearny, Linden, Teterboro, Newark, Jersey City, and Atlantic City. Flights as often as every two minutes seriously degrade the enjoyment of these areas created with governmental funds and charitable donations and designed for recreation and a peaceful respite from urban living.

Waterfront communities along the Hudson River are subjected to endless noise pollution as this waterway has now become a “helicopter highway.” New Jersey residents along the Hudson and the NY Harbor, as well as under the east-west helicopter flight paths, are no longer able to enjoy their backyards, balconies or rooftop decks, and even complain about the helicopter noise penetrating through their windows, disturbing sleep and working from home. Parents are rightfully becoming increasingly concerned about the negative impacts these unnecessary helicopter flights are having on their children’s cognition, health and sleep.

THESE NONESSENTIAL HELICOPTERS CREATE UNNECESSARY AIR POLLUTION:

Fossil fuel-guzzling helicopters add at least 6,000 tons of carbon pollution to the NY/NJ region annually, poisoning the air we breathe and contributing to climate change. One helicopter idling at a heliport has the same impact as more than 40 idling cars, and helicopters can burn as much as 180 gallons of jet fuel per hour. Incredibly, some still use leaded fuel, worsening toxic air emissions. Our northeast coastal areas are extremely vulnerable in the face of climate change; prohibiting nonessential helicopters is the logical next step towards mitigating CO2 emissions and creating a safe, healthy and equitable environment for all.

COMMUTER AND TOURIST HELICOPTERS CAUSE UNNECESSARY SAFETY AND SECURITY RISKS:

Since 1980, there have been at least 30 helicopter crashes in the NY/NJ metro area, resulting in numerous fatalities, serious injuries and property damage. In 2019, a commuter helicopter plowed into a midtown NYC high-rise building resulting in the death of the pilot, a rooftop fire, and a neighborhood evacuation, and that same year a Blade helicopter crashed into the Hudson River. In 2017, all five tourists drowned when a doors-off “shoe selfie” FlyNYON flight from Kearny, NJ, lost power over NYC’s Central Park and crashed into the East River. In 2009, a sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River near Hoboken when it accidently flew into a single-engine plane overhead. All nine occupants of the helicopter and the plane died. Nonessential helicopters also pose an unnecessary terrorism risk, as heliport security is generally lax to nonexistent. Nonessential helicopters should not be flying over our densely populated cities and towns. Yet the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to allow helicopter traffic to operate virtually unrestricted over much of the NY/NJ metropolitan area and has not heeded the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) advice to ban doors-off amateur Instagram photography flights.

BAN NONESSENTIAL HELICOPTERS NOW!

For-profit helicopter companies treat the NY/NJ region’s skies and neighborhoods as their private domain without regard for the millions of people who are negatively affected on a daily basis. Tourist “joyrides” have been allowed to dangerously proliferate, while wealthy commuters seek to literally rise above the rest of us, heedless of the misery they inflict on the many below.

Federal, state and local officials and elected representatives in New Jersey must listen to their constituents and support a ban of nonessential helicopter flights over our neighborhoods and parks now, and the FAA must properly regulate helicopters in this overcrowded and unsafe airspace in the greater NY/NJ Metropolitan area.