Legislators Criticize Implementation of Helo Route

Two aviation-prominent U.S. representatives are not happy with acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta’s implementing the mandatory North Shore VFR helicopter route over Long Island. In a letter to Huerta, Reps. John Mica (R-Fla.) and Tom Petri (R-Wisc.), the chairmen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its aviation subcommittee, respectively, accuse him of bending to “outside pressures, including political ones” while failing to address “troubling safety concerns” the route creates, mainly because a considerable portion of it is over water. Mandating the North Shore route long has been a pet cause of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who tried unsuccessfully to attach it to various pieces of recent legislation. The route became mandatory August 6.