"With the bigger helicopters, my apartment vibrates," said Melissa Elstein, who campaigns to ban non-essential chopper flights.
New York regularly hums with the whirr of helicopters circling the skies as tourists eye the city from above during short, pricey, sightseeing tours.
They also transport wealthy residents keen to avoid traffic jams on their way to holiday homes by the beach in the plush Hamptons.
Elstein is far from the only New Yorker unhappy at the near-constant din caused by the tens of thousands of flights every year.
Last year, the city received 25,821 calls to its hotline complaining about helicopter noise, an increase from 10,359 in 2020.
The vast majority of complaints -- 21,620 -- came from Manhattan.
Some respite may be in the offing.
Earlier this month, the New York state legislature approved a bill that could see companies fined $10,000 a day for generating "unreasonable" noise levels.
If Governor Kathy Hochul signs it into law, it would be the first piece of state legislation to tackle noise pollution from the helicopters.
Senator Brad Hoylman, who sponsored the bill, said that "many New Yorkers can no longer work from home comfortably, enjoy a walk along the waterfront, or keep a napping child asleep because of the incessant noise and vibrations from non-essential helicopter use."
He noted that one helicopter produces 43 times more carbon dioxide per hour than an average car.
"Helicopter noise is not just annoying, it's detrimental to our health and our environment," Hoylman said in a statement.
For Andy Rosenthal -- president of Stop the Chop, an organization of volunteers seeking to ban non-essential helicopter flights -- the legislation does not go far enough.
"It's a good first step. (But) it is not what we had hoped for. The fight continues," he said.
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