First comes the vibration, a deep, resonant hum that moves through brick and plaster like a tuning fork. Then the whirring takes over – broad and unrelenting – until the sound fills every corner.

At its worst, it becomes an atmospheric pressure, an all-encompassing loudness that makes you stop mid-sentence and hope for the air to clear.

This is a daily experience in neighborhoods like Canton, Fells Point, South Baltimore and Greektown. On clear days, tour helicopters loop continuously over the waterfront and deep into residential blocks. Police helicopters circle for long stretches at low attitudes.

But the noise isn’t even the worst of it. The real problem is that these helicopters fly too low to maintain the altitude needed for a safe emergency landing, leaving no margin for error above some of the most densely populated rowhouse communities in the city.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doesn’t regulate helicopter noise. It should at least regulate safety.

Despite what many assume, most helicopters flying over Baltimore aren’t responding to medical emergencies or to law enforcement.

They’re sightseeing charters and private flights.

The Pier 7 Heliport in Canton hosts MyFlight Tours, Charm City Aviation and other commercial operators. Also regularly taking off and landing at the heliport are Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County and U.S. military-owned helicopters.

ADS-B Exchange online flight data show these helicopters routinely pass over the city far below the height – defined at 1,000 feet over congested areas – needed to execute a safe emergency landing.

Height (in feet) of Flights over Upper Fells Point

Self-Policing

Helicopters are allowed to fly without any minimum altitude if operated “without hazard to persons or property on the surface.”

Who decides what constitutes a hazard? Right now, the operators themselves.

Andrew Smullian, deputy chief of staff to Police Commissioner Richard Worley, recently noted that the city cannot mandate where helicopters fly. That’s true – the FAA controls the airspace. But the FAA defines hazard as any condition a reasonable person could foresee as causing or contributing to an accident.

Engine failures, hard landings and pilot error are well-documented and recurring events in helicopter operations. Such events are, by definition, foreseeable.

Determining whether low-altitude flights over urban areas create such conditions – and what constitutes a sufficient emergency landing site – requires independent expert evaluation. It should not be left to operators whose business model depends on flying low and often.

I recently filed a petition with the FAA urging the agency to update its outdated helicopter altitude rules for modern cities. Whether or not the FAA acts, the underlying issue remains: low-altitude flights create foreseeable hazards that no reasonable regulator should ignore.

Hot Refueling

Compounding the risk, Baltimore’s waterfront now hosts a hot refueling operation at Pier 7 on Clinton Street. The FAA reviewed the Pier 7 heliport in 2006. The Army Corps of Engineers approved the pier’s construction in 2015.

Hot refueling – fueling with the engine running and rotors turning – originated in military aviation. The appeal is obvious: it gets aircraft back in the air quickly with minimal downtime.

The risk are equally obvious: fuel spillage and fire ignition. Conducting it over water magnifies both.

A spill goes directly into Baltimore Harbor. A fire on a narrow pier is difficult to contain. Next to fuel tanks, it could be disastrous.

More Flights, More Risks

More flights are coming.

In February, the Board of Estimates approved a $17.9 million deal with developer J. Scott Plank to make his Pier 7 Heliport the permanent home for the police department’s Airbus fleet.

For decades, police helicopters were based at Martin State Airport in Middle River. Beginning this fall, they will be based at Pier 7, adding to the commercial traffic taking off and landing on the narrow Clinton Street pier, increasing low-altitude operations over the very neighborhoods already experiencing daily overflights.

• Amid copious campaign contributions, city officials approve developer’s marina for police heliport (2/5/26)

More flights mean more risk for everything below. The city cannot set altitude rules or require safer operations – only the FAA can.

City officials can raise concerns, and local zoning, licensing and hours of operation rules can shape how tour companies operate.

But only Congress can make laws governing navigable airspace, and the FAA can act only within whatever authority Congress provides, which is why the absence of modern altitude standards leaves cities like Baltimore in danger.

Nobody should have to live beneath such an unregulated helicopter playground. We should not need a fatal accident before such rules exist.

• Anita J. Bhatia holds a PhD and MPH, has lived in Baltimore for 30 years, and resides under a helicopter flight path. She can be reached at fellspoint.anita@gmail.com.