FAA needs new approach on East End helicopter noise

‘The East End has been making noise about helicopters for more than a decade.”

The Newsday editorial board wrote that sentence in 2016. It’s now been more than 20 years since copter trips to the Hamptons and homeowner complaints took off.

But the loud and disruptive chopper trips haven’t abated.

The Federal Aviation Administration has avoided a comprehensive solution to these legitimate complaints, instead utilizing piecemeal, haphazard fixes. Its North Shore Helicopter Route was supposed to require helicopters to travel over Long Island Sound, and to fly at an altitude of at least 2,500 feet. That rule required continual renewal every few years, without any extensive public comment or staff evaluation of effectiveness. And it wasn’t fully enforced, as too often helicopters flew too low and over land.

Last week, the rule expired altogether. In a statement to the editorial board, FAA officials said the expiration was “consistent with the rule’s sunset provision.” “The FAA remains committed to balancing community concerns with safe and efficient operations and encourages helicopter operators to continue using offshore routes and follow voluntary noise-sensitive practices,” the agency said.

To be clear: The FAA is expecting helicopter operators to voluntarily choose offshore routes and show sensitivity to noise concerns.

For more than 20 years, that hasn’t happened. Why would it happen now?

The FAA must rethink its strategy. A good starting point would be a public comment period to understand what East End communities are experiencing. That should lead to substantive rules, requiring entirely overwater routes with heights that won’t disturb area residents, and without open-ended exceptions. That’s what doomed the last effort. Elected officials previously suggested routes that traveled around Orient Point or Plum Island, or over the Atlantic Ocean along the South Shore, rather than cutting across the East End’s residential communities. Those options are worth new consideration.

Any new rules require robust enforcement, which also has been a shortcoming in the past.

The Town of Riverhead recently reconvened its task force on the issue, which hadn’t met since 2022. Local elected officials, and federal ones including Rep. Nick LaLota and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, should meet with stakeholders and push the FAA to really address East End helicopter noise. How about combining forces with Rep. Tom Suozzi and others, who’ve sought to reduce aircraft noise more broadly as part of the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus? There should be a bipartisan effort monitoring the continued changes in technology that may soon bring the next generation of helicopter taxis or electric air taxis to our skies.

For those who can afford to fly above the congested highways of Long Island to get to the East End for a weekend of relaxation, helicopters might seem like a glorious way to travel. For residents who live below them, they’re nothing but a nuisance.

It’s time to quiet the skies, and calm the ground below.