Riverhead revives helicopter noise taskforce with increased air traffic plaguing Wading River

It’s helicopter hell in Wading River. 

Complaints about low-flying helicopters over Wading River prompted Riverhead officials to reconvene the town’s long-dormant Helicopter Noise Task Force ahead of a looming federal deadline.

The frustration centers largely on private helicopters and seaplanes traveling between New York City and the East End. Residents and task force members said some pilots leave offshore routes and cut inland across Wading River and other communities while heading to East Hampton Town Airport or Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach.

“Once you get affected by it once, it’s more irritating every time another one comes by,” said John Cullen, chair of the Riverhead task force. “What our goal here is today is to try to get them back out on the Orient run, out and around, away from Wading River — that shouldn’t be hard, but it will be hard.”

Riverhead officials reconvened the town’s long-dormant Helicopter Noise Task Force as complaints mounted over low-flying aircraft crossing Wading River and a key federal flight rule neared expiration.

The task force met last Thursday with concerned residents and town officials to discuss the Federal Aviation Administration’s North Shore Helicopter Route Rule, which is scheduled to expire July 29.

The 2008 rule generally requires civil helicopters operating under visual flight rules along Long Island’s North Shore to remain offshore and fly at prescribed altitudes. Pilots may deviate from the route for safety, weather or when transitioning to or from a landing site.

The route begins near Huntington and continues east over Long Island Sound. Some helicopters continue around Orient Point toward the South Fork, while others cross inland to reach airports, including Gabreski.

The FAA has periodically extended or modified the rule, most recently renewing it in 2022. With the July 29 expiration approaching, Riverhead officials are seeking help from federal representatives to renew the rule, strengthen enforcement and reconsider where aircraft cross inland.

Town officials said they have contacted Rep. Nick LaLota and Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand about extending the rule and addressing complaints that pilots fly too low or cut across residential neighborhoods.

“We need the help of local officials, and we need the help of federal and state officials as well to ensure that the traffic isn’t bombarded over one particular community,” said Terese McKaskie of Southold Town’s Aircraft Noise Committee. “East Hampton needs to take on more of the pain.”

Residents have filed aircraft-noise complaints for more than a decade. Many helicopters heading to East Hampton or Gabreski fly east along the North Shore before turning south over homes in Riverhead or Southold towns. Task force members said Wading River has become a common transition point for flights headed to the East End.

Mr. Cullen said Riverhead’s task force previously urged East Hampton Town to close its airport after federal grant obligations tied to the facility expired in 2021.

East Hampton officials later attempted to close the public airport and reopen it as a private-use facility requiring prior permission, hoping to impose tighter noise restrictions and curfews. Aviation interests challenged the plan in court, and East Hampton Airport remains open to the public.

Task force members said offshore routes were intended to reduce aircraft noise over residential communities. While many pilots follow them, others take shorter inland paths toward East End airports, they said.

Ms. McKaskie said flight patterns have repeatedly shifted as residents in different communities complained. Because pilots may legally leave the North Shore route under certain circumstances, relieving one community can push the traffic over another.

“It’s a whack-a-mole situation,” she said. 

Aircraft too large to land at East Hampton often use Gabreski, and Wading River residents said jets traveling to and from the Westhampton Beach airport shake their homes as they pass overhead.

Councilwoman Denise Merrifield, a Wading River resident, said Gabreski officials told her the airport had received approximately 7,000 aircraft-noise complaints during the past year.

She said helicopters using the North Shore route may legally cross inland over Wading River while traveling to or from Gabreski. Simply renewing the existing rule, she said, would therefore fail to resolve the community’s problem.

Ms. Merrifield urged the FAA to reconsider the route and spread the inland transition points rather than concentrating traffic over Wading River.

She also encouraged residents to file complaints directly with the airports and the Eastern Region Helicopter Council.

“They can take that information and data, and try to compile something and do something with it.”

Mr. Rothwell said the town’s immediate priority is ensuring the FAA renews the North Shore route before July 29. He said residents’ complaints will also be crucial as town officials seek stronger enforcement and changes to flight patterns.

Residents who experience helicopter noise that interferes with their quality of life can file a complaint through PlaneNoise.com. Contact information for airports, elected officials and other organizations is also available on the Helicopter Noise Task Force page of Riverhead Town’s website.

“If you simply get the date and time, they are able to go to the flight path and pick up exactly who’s traveling on that, and then that kind of builds up complaints, and so that’s what’s ultimately needed from the residents,” Mr. Rothwell said. “We’ll just keep logging them in, and we’ll keep presenting them to our federal officials and to push for enforcement because that’s ultimately the way in which you’ll change the pattern.”