Uber's Short-lived Helicopter Service In Utah Grounded (ksl.com)

New submitter captaindomon writes: It may come as no surprise that the Uber helicopter flights which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival were apparently illegal and quickly grounded. "Thanks to the support and partnership we have with Sundance and Park City Municipal Corporation, we were able to come to an agreement," said Summit County spokeswoman Katie Mullaly. "We are glad to have this issue resolved, not only for the safety of all those involved, but also for the wildlife of the area, affected residents and environmental concerns."

Comments

Re:What about Private Property Rights?

[bobbied]

Sure, that's a noise problem. IF you have land use restrictions (deed restrictions or local ordinances) that deal with that, get the restrictions enforced using the civil courts. If it's a local law, apply the relevant citations and fines for violating the noise ordinances. However, you don't go and obtain a court order to enforce the law before they break it, or threaten to arrest pilots and impound the aircraft without clearly showing a violation of law. Further, in this case, the county and city must show they have a valid reason for the law they are enforcing because the FAA is where the law that controls aircraft operations above the ground come from, and the FAA reserves the authority to regulate anything that flies, so states, cities and counties may NOT regulate aircraft. In fact, the only time a city, county or state could conceivably regulate aircraft is whey they are NOT flying (I,e. when they are on the ground) and then, only to the extent they can show reasonable cause for the public good (Health, safety etc.)

So in this case, any land use deed restrictions or local ordinances can ONLY apply to an aircraft which is currently ON THE GROUND. The noise produced while the aircraft is flying is not subject to local or state regulations but FAA rules. So FLYING over the neighbors house in accordance with FAA rules does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state, county or city and only a small portion of the aircraft operation (time wise) is spent on the ground where it is even possible that local ordinances could apply.