By Jeremy Boren
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — Medical helicopters whisk hundreds of gravely ill or injured patients to Pittsburgh emergency rooms each month, but backlogs on hospital helipads force some choppers to hover near homes where people suffer the din of rotor blades.
“It sounds like a Harley-Davidson,” said Richard Young, whose Northumberland Street home borders Schenley Park -- a spot, residents say, that medical helicopters often use as an aerial holding zone.
Young said helicopter noise increased significantly this spring and occasionally is loud enough to awaken him and his wife at night. The Carnegie Mellon University professor acknowledged the helicopters are a life-saving necessity, but he has asked Councilman Bill Peduto to examine the problem.
“We can’t have a conversation while they’re flying over,” he said. “This neighborhood used to be so quiet.”
Dan Nakles, a spokesman for STAT MedEvac, said Pittsburgh’s largest medical-flight provider is working with Peduto to address Young’s concerns and those of dozens of other people who have called the councilman to complain.
Peduto actually made the six-minute helicopter trip from Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin to Children’s Hospital in Oakland last month to see what residential areas lie beneath common flight paths.
“It’s going to be noisy. It’s the nature of the aircraft,” Nakles said.
The company’s two high-tech, twin-engine helicopters cost $4.5 million and $6 million and are built to operate as quietly as possible, Nakles said.
“My concern is that the number of flights is only going to increase,” Peduto said.
He has proposed two solutions:
- Varying flight paths so medical helicopters don’t always travel over the same residential streets.
- Asking pilots to hover farther from heavily populated Schenley Park.
Wendy Zellner, a University of Pittsburgh Hospital spokeswoman, said MedEvac accounts for most of the medical helicopter flights in Pittsburgh. UPMC controls a majority share of the consortium of hospitals that owns STAT MedEvac.
Zellner said helipad backlogs force pilots to hover over the park, but she could not provide figures for how often that occurs or how long helicopters typically hover.
There are about 7,000 medical flights annually into the city by all operators, Zellner said. That averages to about 1.25 helicopter flights an hour over a year.
About 4,500 STAT MedEvac flights go to Children’s Hospital and UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland; roughly another 300 go to UPMC Shadyside.
Marc Fielder, head of the First Tee of Pittsburgh at Schenley’s golf course, said golfers comment on the choppers overhead.
“They joke about it. They say it’s like being on the set of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ” he said.
Fielder said he appreciates the lifesaving work of the medical helicopters, but added, “Golf is certainly an activity where the golfers enjoy an environment of calm and quiet.”