Janet Handel describes seaplane safety gaps at Waterside
The Waterside Tenants Association president says 250,000 residents live along the East River and 2,412 seaplane operations occurred in one 2022 period; pilots use visual flight rules and she demands an independent safety review.
Thank you.
Janet?
Good morning.
My name is Janet Handel and I'm president of the Waterside Tenants Association representing the 4,000 people who live directly in front of the East River Seaplane Corridor.
When I moved to Waterside Plaza in the 70s, the Queens Brooklyn waterfront was industrial and low-lying.
Today, the river has changed.
The population has changed, the traffic has changed, but the rules have not.
Over 250,000 people now live along this waterfront.
NYC Ferry operates over 150 vessel trips down the East River Corridor daily, sharing the river with commercial ships, seaplanes, and helicopters.
Two schools adjacent to the Skyport serve 1,700 students.
And over one three-month period in 2022, there were 2,412 seaplane landings and takeoffs.
Yet the FAA regulations governing the Skyport go back decades.
The safety gaps are sobering.
This stretch of the East River is excluded from air traffic control.
Pilots operate under visual flight rules only.
That means helicopters, that means everything, visual flight rules.
They must see and avoid a chaotic web of ferries and helicopters on their own in an increasingly congested corridor.
We cannot even verify if the organization identified in the regulation.
to vet pilots exists anymore, and whether pilots are adequately qualified to operate in these challenging conditions and to comply with noise restrictions.
Residents regularly observe seaplanes taking off and landing closer than the required thousand feet to our shore, bringing aircraft dangerously close to our residential buildings and dramatically increasing the sound that we're experiencing.
The seasonal noise is relentless.
Engine roars and low frequency vibrations shake our windows, diminish residents'quality of life, and disrupt teaching.
So we must ask, who is in charge?
Who is protecting the 250,000 New Yorkers living along the waterfront?
Who investigates violations, and what sanctions are imposed when operators break the rules.
For years, we have raised these concerns with the FAA, EDC, and DOC NYC.
We need clear answers, not another handoff between agencies and organizations.
We demand an immediate independent safety review, transparent accountability,
meaningful enforcement, and modernized oversight reflecting today's waterfront.
Public safety cannot depend on voluntary compliance and hope.
We should not have to wait for a tragedy to happen before someone takes responsibility.
Thank you.