NYC Council regulates tourist helicopters following fatal crash and noise concerns

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Two weeks removed from that fatal chopper crash that claimed the lives of six people, the New York City Council is taking aim at tourist helicopters. On Thursday, the City Council passed legislation designed to make them quieter and safer -- while conceding they would ideally like to do more. If signed into law, the city would ban non-essential tourist and commercial helicopter flights that don't meet the strictest of FAA noise standards. "The most outdated, loudest and dirtiest helicopters will no longer be allowed to fly out of our downtown Manhattan heliport or East 34th Street heliport," said New York City Council member Amanda Farías. The hope is that regulating helicopters in this way not only would improve noise concerns particularly for Manhattanites, but also improve safety because only more modern, clean, safe helicopters can meet these noise standards. However, the new law, which would go into effect in 2029, would not regulate the many tourism flights that originate from the Garden State. So the City Council is engaging with legislative partners across the river and formally calling on the New York State Legislature to completely block non-essential flights from launching in Manhattan and to impose a so-called noise tax on choppers buzzing over Manhattan. Moreover, the City Council would ideally like the FAA to ban tourist flights over New York City altogether but concede that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. "We do need our federal colleagues to take action, but if we don't take action in the City Council, they won't have the incentive or pressure to take that next step," said New York City Council member Christopher Marte.