Cold and uncomfortable: Helicopter tour over New York costs $400 but falls short

After a $400 flight tour of Manhattan that she called "pathetic" and "cold," Upper West Side City Council member Gail Brewer said she was relieved to return on March 5 after trying one of the helicopter flights, which pissed off her voters for years, reports NY Daily News.

“I've never been so happy to be in New Jersey,” Brewer joked after returning to the helipad in Kearney, New Jersey, where FlyNYON organizes popular helicopter tours for tourists. "I've been getting complaints about these things for 15 years and now I understand why."

Brewer has called for an end to noisy helicopter tours while she was Manhattan Borough President and during a previous tenure as a city council member representing the Upper West Side.

Her feelings are shared by thousands of people New York, who filed 21 helicopter noise complaints to 620 in 311. This number is more than double the 2021 complaints filed in 10.

And the 2020 figure was three times the 3332 helicopter noise complaints filed in 2019, city data shows. A third of the complaints filed last year came from the Upper West Side.

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Instagram and TikTok users - from outside the city - seem to be the main customers of the trip.

“They're all tourists,” Brewer said. “I was yelling at people, ‘Is there anyone from New York here? " None. Just two tourists from Washington State who said they didn't like the city's rules regarding COVID-19."

FlyNYON offers walks over central park, allowing tourists to photograph and film their feet dangling over the city.

Brewer said her $400 ride was uncomfortable and cold. She went on a walk over Central Park, Governors Island, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge before returning to New Jersey.

FlyNYON bills itself as the largest helicopter travel company in New York. One of his door-to-door trips ended in tragedy when a helicopter crashed into the East River in 2018, killing five passengers.

The National Transportation Safety Board later found that the helicopter's occupants were wearing seat belts that were too difficult to remove. Investigators found that seat belts kept passengers stuck in the helicopter 1,5 to 2,5 meters underwater as they drowned.

Months later, New York authorities banned helicopter flights with open doors from the city's helipads. FlyNYON bypassed the restriction by taking off and landing in New Jersey.

Brewer called on New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to crack down on FlyNYON. She said Congress should quickly pass legislation to ban most helicopter flights over Manhattan.

New York House of Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velasquez, all Democrats, reintroduced the Helicopter Safety Act last year that would have imposed such a ban, but it failed to pass.

Brewer said she would prefer tourists to spend hundreds of dollars in the city. Not throwing them into the wind in New Jersey for a quick, frustrating helicopter ride.

“Tourists should stop in New York, enjoy our streets, our restaurants, our tourist attractions. If you want to see Statue of Libertyjust go out and take the boat,” Brewer said. “That makes it so noisy for people in the parks trying to play ball or enjoy a book.”

A spokesperson for FlyNYON did not respond to a request for comment.