Hopper, the director of the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease, said complaints or inquiries to the airport’s noise line went from 13 in June to 27 in July and then to 63 through Aug. 20.
Hopper blamed the increase on the operation of Seacoast Helicopters, which conducts tours of the Seacoast and the city of Portsmouth from its location at the tradeport.
“It’s really the first summer they’ve done them, and we’re getting quite a few inquires on that,” Hopper said during the PDA’s board meeting Thursday.
Hopper said airport officials have been working with Seacoast Helicopters and the Federal Aviation Administration, which controls the operations of helicopters and airplanes, to see if anything can be done about the complaints.
Responding to a question about what actions the board could take, Hopper said, “I don’t really see much that can be done by the board, especially when this is beyond a Pease issue.”
PDA Executive Director David Mullen said the city could pass an ordinance “to not have helicopters land or take off in the city of Portsmouth,” but then added, “That’s about it.”
He said after the meeting that if Portsmouth passed such an ordinance, it wouldn’t impact the ability of Seacoast Helicopters to land and take off at the airport.
Board member Margaret Lamson complained that she had seen a red helicopter outside the funeral of former City Councilor John Hynes on Tuesday.
“I’m coming out and there’s that helicopter whirling around,” Lamson said. “I really thought that was offensive. It just seemed insensitive.”
Likewise, City Manager John Bohenko, who also attended the funeral and sits on the PDA board, said he saw a red helicopter “flying low.”
“They weren’t at 1,000 feet,” Bohenko said. “They were circling around the city proper (in the) downtown.
Bohenko asked Hopper to find out if the red helicopter was being operated by Seacoast Helicopters.
Bruce Cultrera, the owner of Seacoast Helicopters, could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday. He has said in the past that his helicopters always fly higher than 1,000 feet, even though there’s no FAA regulation that requires them to stay above any level.
He has also said his company is all about promoting the city of Portsmouth and bringing in tourists dollars to the region.
“The other thing is we don’t fly directly over downtown, and the reason for that is we’re carrying tourists who have cameras and they’re gawking and looking and you can’t see what’s directly under the helicopter,” he said during a recent interview. “We go around the outskirts of downtown.”
- Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com
Seacoast Helicopters, a
company located at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease that
provides flight instruction and tourist flights, has been the subject of
recent noise complaints.
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