Several times over the past couple of weeks, a helicopter dragging an ad for cheap flights from Qantas has disturbed the peace of North London. The helicopter goes particularly slowly as it seems to struggle to pull the huge banner across the sky and, since it is flying low, the noise lasts for far longer than a normal flight. My daughter’s dog is terrified by it and tends to rush home if she hears it, endangering her life and risking causing an accident.
It is unacceptable that at a time when the government and local authorities are beginning to recognise the damage caused by noise pollution, such flights, which serve absolutely no purpose, are allowed. I wrote to the Civil Aviation Authority to see who regulates such activity and whether the flights contravene any law. I was informed that the CAA has no remit to assess aviation activity in terms of the environment. Provided the flights are operated safely, the CAA only has a remit if there are proposals to change airspace use, but not when aircraft are operating within exciting rules.
This is extraordinary. The response from the CAA suggests that there could be dozens of such helicopters flying round with impunity. However, oddly, in evidence to the London Assembly which examined this issue, the CAA said that there are specific helicopter routes which avoid built up areas. But the whole point about such flights with advertising banners is that they are aimed at the maximum number of people and therefore will concentrate in areas where there are the most people.
Each of these flights probably disturb hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, from what I can gather so far, there are no regulations about them whatsoever. I will report back when I discover more, but I would be interested if anyone else has noticed an increase in these flights or been disturbed by them.
