New York City is considering legislation that would effectively shut down heliports there.
April 2021
New York City has had a troubled relationship with the helicopter industry ever since the Sikorsky S-61 accident atop the Pan Am building in 1977, which killed five people. But what was an uneasy détente for decades now appears on the verge of total war, with leading city officials pushing to purge civil rotorcraft from Gotham’s skies forever.
Paul Vallone is leading the charge. The chairman of the New York City Council’s Committee on Economic Development (CED) has little sympathy for the helicopter industry there. At a CED hearing last month, Vallone accused the industry of generating noise that is “pillaging through our neighborhoods.” Vallone, an enthusiastic supporter of local and federal legislation that would effectively shut down civil helicopter traffic over New York, said residents of the city need to “reclaim our skies” and predicted the legislation
Airbus Helicopters president Romain Trapp
A senior Airbus Helicopters executive last week expressed skepticism that eVTOL passenger aircraft would be put into commercial service anytime soon. Romain Trapp, president of Airbus Helicopters Inc. the rotorcraft maker’s North American arm told attendees at a Helicopter Association International (HAI) webinar that “we as an industry we have to learn and hopefully we are going to find at some point, a game-changing technology which I don’t see today, by the way.”
Trapp said that it could be “decades” before eVTOL aircraft were integrated into an advanced air mobility (AAM) environment. “What we all want to see as an industry is some game-changing technology that will bring us one step further, he explained. The technology is not there, yet. And the regulatory environment has not even been defined, and for good reasons. Because at the end of the day, we still have a long way to go to be able to do so. What we all want is to
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Preliminary Reports
Conquest Down in Tennessee
Cessna 441, February 7, 2021, Winchester, Tennessee – A Cessna Conquest II crashed on approach to the Winchester, Tennessee, Municipal Airport, killing the airline transport pilot and commercial pilot on board. The IFR flight from the Thomasville, Georgia, Regional Airport checked in with Bowling Green Approach Control while descending to 4,000 feet msl and was cleared for the RNAV approach to Winchester’s Runway 36. Radar contact was lost as it descended through 2,300 feet, typical for coverage in that area. The controller’s attempt to contact the pilot three minutes later was unsuccessful, and after several hours the wreckage was found along a 500-foot debris path about six miles south of the airport. Both wings and most of the fuselage were consumed by a post-crash fire.
HAI Selects Sikorsky s Jeanette Eaton for Comms Award ainonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ainonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.