Chopper tours around NYC would be banned under new federal bill: ‘We owe it to the victims'
The proposed bipartisan Improving Helicopter Safety Act — introduced May 5 by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) — would bar all 'non-essential' helicopters within a 20-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty.
4 Helicopter tours around New York City would be scrapped for good under a new federal bill introduced earlier this month.
PhotoSpirit – stock.adobe.com
The bill — targeting flights used for recreation, tourism and luxury commuting – was introduced after the tragic crash in the Hudson River that killed a tourist mom, dad and their three young kids, as well as the pilot, April 10. The legislation would take effect 60 days after being signed into law.
'While we have consistently worked to address the impact of non-essential helicopters on our communities, last month's tragic crash should be a clarion call for every level of government to take action on helicopter safety,' Menendez said in a statement.
'Rising congestion of non-essential helicopters, coupled with concerning safety records of air tourism operators, are causing a direct threat to public safety.
'Along with my colleagues from New Jersey and New York, we're doing what is necessary to prevent tragedies like this from happening again,' the rep said.
Choppers that would still be allowed to fly around the city under the bill include those used by police, disaster response, medical and other emergency crews and those employed for research, news and film.
4 How The Post reported Manhattan's latest chopper tragedy.
The Big Apple sightseeing company New York Helicopter Tours shut down days after the deadly crash involving one of its choppers. New York Helicopter Tours CEO Michael Roth confirmed to The Post that his company was ceasing operations at the demand of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The doomed helicopter was on its eighth flight of the day when it broke apart in the air and crashed into the Hudson, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The last inspection date for the chopper was March 1.
After the crash, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) applauded the move by the FAA but noted 'much work remains to be done.'
Schumer said the FAA must conduct more inspections of tourist helicopter companies and consider other questions about the industry going forward.
4 The doomed helicopter was on its eighth flight of the day when it broke apart in the air and crashed into the Hudson, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
AP
The grassroots organization Stop The Chop, which has sought for years to ground the city's roughly 30,000 tourist helicopter flights over environmental impacts and noise, hailed the federal bill.
The proposal is 'common sense federal legislation that will, when passed, finally put an end to the dangerous helicopter conditions in the New York metropolitan area,' the group said in a statement.
Last month, the New York City Council passed a bill banning non-essential helicopter flights from city-owned heliports unless they meet FAA noise standards, although the law won't take effect until December 2029.
4 At least 38 people have died in chopper crashes in the Big Apple since 1977.
ozerkina – stock.adobe.com
Supporters of a tourist-chopper ban argue that the tragic incident last month wasn't an isolated incident, with at least 38 fatalities tied to helicopter crashes in New York City since 1977, according to The Associated Press.
'It was the latest in a long line of preventable tragedies in the New York metropolitan region's increasingly crowded and poorly regulated airspace,' Nadler said. 'For far too long, non-essential helicopter flights have endangered public safety and shattered the peace of our neighborhoods.
We owe it to the victims, and to every resident living beneath these flight paths, to put safety first and prevent future disasters.'
— Additional reporting by David Propper
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Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia -- Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo" — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. 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Morales is betting that an unusually high proportion of votes for Nulo would embarrass the right-wing front-runners, former President Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermine the credibility of the consequential election and extend his own political relevance. 'Evo wants to be in the election and say, 'This is my vote ... I'm the winner without even having participated,'" said political analyst Carlos Saavedra. Morales' bid for Nulo comes after the iconic leftist leader, like other Latin American populists of his generation, exhausted a range of tactics to stay in power. To run for a third term in 2014, Morales changed the Constitution's two-consecutive-term limit and stacked the top courts with his supporters. To run for a fourth term in 2019, he found a way around a referendum blocking his bid. That last attempt six years ago led to Morales resigning under pressure from the military and fleeing into exile as violent protests erupted over his disputed reelection. This time, with his ally-turned-rival Arce in power, Morales had all the cards — rather, courts — stacked against him. The ex-president's power struggle with Arce splintered his once-dominant Movement Toward Socialism. Although running with a different faction, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez represents the MAS party's best hope. But support for Rodríguez, a coca-farming union activist like Morales, has declined in recent weeks as an accelerating currency crisis stokes outrage at the long-dominant MAS party. Morales' followers can appear even more disgusted with the left than with the right-wing establishment that their leader built his career opposing. "Evo Morales taught Andrónico everything he knows, and Andrónico stabbed him in the back. How can we trust a candidate like that?" asked Wendy Chipana, a 28-year-old volunteer at a Nulo campaign office in El Alto, the sprawling city of rural migrants overlooking Bolivia's capital of La Paz. 'We only have one candidate, Evo Morales. That's why we're deciding not to cast a single valid vote.' As anger flared in June over Morales' disqualification, his supporters blocked highways and clashed with police in unrest that left eight dead. Morales warned that the country would 'convulse' should Sunday's election proceed. Yet in recent weeks he has changed his tune, urging his followers to register their frustration through the ballot box. Nulo campaigners are asking voters to get creative. Chipana distributes decals of Morales' face that voters can stick on their ballots. Retired professor Martha Cruz, 67, says she'll mark hers with a large X. 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Despite disenchantment over his autocratic tendencies, sexual abuse cases and profligate state spending, Morales, as Bolivia's first Indigenous president, retains a level of fervent support that no other candidate can claim. 'I look in the mirror and realize I am just like him,' said Cristina Sonco, 43, a worker at the scenic cable car linking La Paz to El Alto, one of the many infrastructure projects Morales built as president. Like Morales, Sonco is an Aymara, the Indigenous group forming the majority of Bolivia's population. Recalling how his presidency reduced inequality and increased her rights in a country historically dominated by a white and mestizo, or mixed-race, elite, she started to weep. 'He's like a father to me," she said. 'Not like these other candidates.' 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12 hours ago
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Zohran's rent-stabilized digs: Letters to the Editor — Aug. 14, 2025
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