Helicopter owner working on solution to grad-night noise

The owner of a charter-helicopter business based at Renton Municipal Airport has told Mayor Denis Law he will consider how to avoid the noise from graduation night flights that disrupted the sleep of residents under their flight paths.

Law and Michael O’Leary, owner of AirO Inc., met recently to discuss the flights that generated “a lot of complaints” via phone and e-mail, according to Law.

The helicopter rides occurred during six nights from roughly 2:30 - 4 a.m.

The rides were offered to graduating seniors from Renton high schools and other local high schools as part of their graduation-night packages.

O’Leary has estimated about 1,000 students took the flights.

“It’s not a surprise that people are upset,” said Law.

According to Law, O’Leary told him that he had no idea the flights would cause such a problem. Law told O’Leary he wants a report back on how he’ll solve the problem.

The city can’t ban the flights, Law said, although he said he would if he could. The flights met all FAA regulations.

Law suggested that O’Leary consider the impact on his company’s image, too.

O’Leary said he’s still evaluating how he might handle the graduation-night flights next year. Possibilities include limiting the number of schools offering the flights or limiting flight times and flight paths or dropping them altogether, he said.

“We don’t want to cause so many people to lose sleep,” he said.

He said he has a year to figure out a solution. Such late-night and early morning flights aren’t offered at any other time.

He has been busy now supplying helicopters and crews to help fight the wildfires in Southern California.

His company recently added two helicopters to his fleet – a $10 million investment. He now has seven helicopters. He is looking for more space at the airport.

He indicated he might limit the grad-night flights as a concession in order to get more space at the airport.

Dean A. Radford can be reached at 425-255-3484, ext. 5050, or at dean.radford@rentonreporter.com.

Contact Renton Reporter Editor Dean Radford at editor@rentonreporter.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5050.

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