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NJ county, towns file lawsuit to stop noisy NYC sightseeing helicopters
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Sep 30, 2026
Modified Sep 30, 2026
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Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Sep 30, 2026
Modified Sep 30, 2026
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Some of the tourist helicopters that circle New York City should be shut down, at least temporarily, according to a new lawsuit filed in New Jersey.
The town of Kearny on Tuesday sued the helicopter operator FlyNYON along with HHI Heliport and River Terminal Development, which owns the heliport property, over complaints that helicopter operations are consistently violating the conditions of local zoning approvals.
Kearny’s complaint argues that helicopter tours were never permitted to operate from the facility, and that almost a quarter of takeoffs and landings at the heliport occur outside the operating hours that Jeff Hyman, the CEO of HHI Heliport, had previously said the facility would adhere to.
“ The owner of the heliport, under oath, said there would be no tourist helicopters,” Kearny Mayor Carol Jean Doyle said at a press conference on the courthouse steps in Jersey City on Tuesday. “That has been totally ignored.”
The suit opens another theater in the ongoing war between sightseeing helicopters and the New York and New Jersey residents who hate them. Groups on both sides of the Hudson have been battling the helicopter companies for years. But even after last year’s deadly crash over the Hudson, no significant changes have been made to the industry.
Kearny filed its lawsuit in Hudson County Superior Court. The town is joined in the case by Hudson County, Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne and Union City after local leaders for each approved a shared services agreement to pay for the litigation.
“ We're here today for all the citizens,” Hudson County Executive Craig Guy told reporters. “All the kids that get woken up in the morning, all the seniors, all the people that have to look out a window and see these helicopters hovering dangerously.”
Kearny is seeking a temporary restraining order to limit takeoffs and landings at the heliport to between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. and to ban helicopter tours from operating out of the heliport. A hearing to consider the temporary restraining order is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Neither FlyNYON, HHI Heliport, nor River Terminal Development responded to requests for comment.
Kearny’s arguments hinge on testimony Hyman gave to the town’s Zoning Board in 2014, in which he said the heliport would operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the summer and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the winter. Hyman specifically said the heliport would not offer helicopter tours.
He made the remarks during a hearing where the board was considering the heliport’s request to build a new maintenance facility on the site. The board approved that request based on the testimony.
The heliport’s website lists its hours of operation as 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. And FlyNYON advertises flights from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
Kearny hired The Aloft Group, an aviation risk and safety consultant, to analyze the operations of HHI Heliport and FlyNYON. The Aloft Group, in its report, concluded that FlyNYON had attempted to exploit a regulatory loophole by not directly advertising its flights as tours; the company advertises its services on its website as “the ultimate helicopter photo experience.”
The Aloft Group found that 23.8% of takeoffs and landings at the heliport between October 2024 and August of this year were outside the hours approved by Kearny authorities in 2014. FlyNYON accounted for 62% of the heliport's off-hours operations.
Kearny authorities hit the heliport with a zoning violation last year for offering helicopter tours and operating outside the scope of approved conditions. The Aloft Group’s analysis found the rate of off-hour operations remained largely unchanged after the violation was issued.
“ Follow the damn law,” Guy said. “Can't say it any clearer.”
Helicopter flights around New York City have long been the source of quality-of-life complaints and safety concerns from residents on both sides of the river. There were more than 17,000 complaints about helicopter noise in New York City alone for a 12-month-period ending in June, according to a Gothamist analysis of city data.
“ For many years, we have been suffering under the constant drone of tourist helicopters, sometimes to the tune of more than a hundred a day,” Nick Wierda, a Jersey City resident and board member of the advocacy group Stop the Chop NYNJ, said at the press conference. “For years, we have voiced our complaints to many of our politicians who represent us. And for many, many years, we have gotten nothing but a wave of the hand and a pass of the buck. And that, I am happy to say, stops today.”
The issue flared up again last year, when a helicopter on a sightseeing tour crashed into the Hudson River, killing five members of a family and the pilot. That flight took off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. The flight operator — New York Helicopter Charter Inc. — was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration and has since shut down. A federal investigation into the crash remains ongoing.
“ We don't need another tragedy like that. I won't tolerate another tragedy like that,” Guy said. “Every day we play Russian roulette with these helicopters, and the fear of one of these helicopters coming down in an urban area like our towns in Hudson County is unacceptable and inexcusable.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during his campaign that he opposed nonessential helicopter travel around the city, but he has yet to address the issue since taking office. City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
City councilmembers have proposed legislation that would restrict the two city-owned heliports to only public safety, medical or newsgathering purposes.
Some state lawmakers have pitched cracking down on helicopters in the area. In 2022, New York lawmakers passed a bill that would have banned nonessential flights from the heliport in the state-owned Hudson River Park. Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed that measure, saying at the time that it was the federal government’s job to regulate airspace.
New Jersey State Sen. Raj Mukherji, a Democrat who represents Hudson County, is sponsoring bills that would restrict or ban tourist flights out of New Jersey heliports, impose a new tax on nonessential helicopter flights in the Garden State, and give municipalities new powers to enforce local land-use rules around heliports.
Members of Congress from both states have tried to pass federal legislation on the issue. Rep. Rob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, has pushed to ban nonessential helicopter flights in the region. He applauded Kearny’s new lawsuit.
“We won't stop working to find solutions at all levels of government until our communities get the peace and safety they deserve,” Menendez said in a statement.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Kearny's mayor.
Tagged
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Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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