Author: Norman Andrews
Wealthy homeowners along the Riviera in Nice, Monaco and St Tropez have turned their guns on their upmarket neighbours in their helicopters. Now the local authorities have joined the calls for a clampdown on noisy choppers in the skies over the Mediterranean. Passing helicopters can ferry the rich from watering hole to casino and back but the noisy rotors are testing the patience of residents below.
Fed up at the flagrant breaches of noise regulations the authorities are set to close one of the busiest helipads as a warning to others. Swarms of helicopters have created havoc as the wealthy increasingly take to the skies to avoid traffic jams.
A code of good conduct was introduced to help curb the choppers but it has been blatantly ignored. There were still 5,000 flights in three summer months last year – nearly four times the limit agreed for the whole year. Eight helipads serve the area and all have been heavily used again this summer with neighbours reporting some of them getting more than 100 landings each day.
Some say the super-rich are not to blame. They have their own helicopters and landing pads and use them discreetly. The problem is that more and more people can afford helicopter travel these days.