Federal legislators are responding with more thoughts and prayers to April’s helicopter crash in the Hudson River that killed the pilot and a family of five visiting from Spain. A bill introduced to Congress earlier this month would ban tourist sightseeing and other commercial flights in New York City. While the crash investigation is still ongoing, the NTSB confirmed in a preliminary report that the Bell 206L4 sightseeing helicopter broke apart in mid-air before plummeting into the water.
The bill introduced by Representative Jerrold Nadler would prohibit all non-essential helicopter flights within a 20-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty. The radius covers all three of the city’s major airports: John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty. The listed exemptions to the ban include law enforcement, disaster responses, disaster and emergency response, medical services and flights for “the benefit of the general public.” The public good exemption would include flights for scientific research and news helicopters.
The bill to ban NYC helicopter flights has bipartisan support
The proposed legislation has received bipartisan support from the city’s Congressional delegation during a time when both sides of the aisle couldn’t be further apart. Nadler, a Democrat representing a significant chunk of Manhattan, was joined by three other Democrats and Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representing Staten Island and a small part of Brooklyn. Nadler said in a release:
“The tragic helicopter crash last month on the Hudson River was not an isolated incident; it was the latest in a long line of preventable tragedies in the New York metropolitan region’s increasingly crowded and poorly regulated airspace. For far too long, non-essential helicopter flights have endangered public safety and shattered the peace of our neighborhoods.”
The bill isn’t the first government action after the crash. Senator Chuck Schumer urged the Federal Aviation Administration to strip New York Helicopter, the crashed chopper’s operator, of its air carrier certificate. The agency obliged after CEO Michael Roth desperately tried to keep his company in the sky. Roth fired Jason Costello, his director of operations, after Costello voluntarily agreed to halt flights at the FAA’s request. It wasn’t a good look after Schumer stated that all of New York’s helicopter tour companies were willing to manipulate FAA rules for profit.