Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey: Low-flying helicopters hovering just above Turnpike is scary sight -Mayor Mark Smith

"You can see the people in the cockpit of the helicopter, they're that low," said Thomas J. Favia, a 56th Street resident and former president of the Jersey City Education Association.

Favia said his wife, Olympia, gets upset and frightened when the helicopters pass by.

"Sometimes you think they're in the house," Favia said.

The aerial nuisance has prompted Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith to complain to the Federal Aviation Administration.

In his Dec. 19 letter to the FAA, Smith states the daily flights cause "unnecessary fear" and disturbances to residents near Woodrow Wilson Elementary School on 56th Street and Marist High School on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

"We've had a number of sightings and complaints from residents about low-flying and loud aircraft," city spokesman Joe Ryan said.

The mayor's letter doesn't specify the destination of the low-flying helicopters since there are a number of helipads in the area, Ryan said, but one of the heliports nearby is HHI Heliport in South Kearny.

Favia said he thinks the helicopters are flying alongside the NJ Turnpike, which runs behind 56th Street. Smith's letter said his staff has witnessed helicopters flying only 100 feet over the Turnpike and that it can be "startling to people using the Turnpike bridge."

Mary Kay Tokar, also a 56th Street resident said she assumes the helicopters are coming from Newark Liberty International Airport and heading into New York.

Tokar said she's noticed an increase in the number of helicopters over the past two years, and said her husband had counted at least 30 passing by one day.

"It's very disturbing when you're trying to use the backyard," Tokar said, "It's worse in the summer."

She also said that the helicopters seem to fly directly over Woodrow Wilson Elementary, adding "it must be hard trying to teach with the noise."

Jersey City Councilman Michael Sottolano, who represents Greenville and other neighborhoods in the southern part of the city, said he and the Mayor's Office tangled with this issued about a year ago.

"We contacted the FAA ... it didn't go anywhere," Sottolano said today. "We were told they fly low because of the flight pattern out of Newark Airport. It is annoying as heck."
 
Even though some residents "could almost wave to the pilot," Sottolano said city officials were told the helicopters were flying at federally-authorized altitudes.

According to the FAA's website, the minimum flight altitude for aircraft is 1,000 feet above the tallest obstacle over congested areas of a town, city or settlement. In non-congested areas the minimum altitude is 500 feet.

However, helicopters can fly at less than the minimums if the "operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface."

FAA guidelines state helicopters can operate below minimum altitudes because of "its unique operating characteristics, the most important of which is ability to execute "pinpoint emergency landings during power failure."

Calls to the FAA and the nearby HHI Heliport in Kearny were not returned.

Smith's letter requests the FAA to conduct an investigation and to advise him of any actions they will take. The FAA has not yet responded, Ryan said last week.

Sottolano said the problem with this issue is that after a while people get used to the annoyance.

"We are a very resilient group of people," he said. "We seem to be able to adapt and accept most things."

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