New York City Economic Development Corporation

Downtown Manhattan Heliport: Safety and Security

The Downtown Manhattan Heliport is one of three public heliports in New York City. The Heliport, which is managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pursuant to a lease agreement with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, is used by sightseeing, corporate and charter helicopter carriers. The Heliport also hosts passenger shuttle flights to Kennedy Airport. The Heliport is required to file a security plan with the Federal Transportation Security Administration. We examined the Heliport’s compliance with this plan as well as other safety and security-related practices.

We found that improvements were needed in certain safety and security-related practices at the Heliport. Due to the sensitive nature of our audit, our detailed findings and recommendations are not included in our audit report, but were presented separately to New York City Economic Development Corporation, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Heliport officials throughout the course of our audit and were also provided to the appropriate federal, State, and local authorities charged with homeland security and law enforcement.

For a complete copy of Report 2007-S-7 click here.