After North Village residents urged UCLA hospital officials to address the helicopter noise caused by emergency air transportation to and from Ronald Reagan Medical Center, a community meeting was held last week.
North Village residents said they requested the meeting after weeks of bearing “the rumble of the choppers (that) shakes windows and rattles rooftops,” according to one North Village resident in an e-mailed statement.
Dr. James Atkinson, a senior medical director of the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, led the meeting. Other hospital planners and officials were present, along with several Westwood residents.
Atkinson said he apologized for the noise that the North Village residents find so disruptive, but he also said the helicopters play a vital function within the hospital.
“We have treatments here that other centers don’t have,” Atkinson said. “Time is of the essence.”
He said the helicopters are used to transport trauma victims, newborns who need treatments only the UCLA hospital can administer, and for organ transport.
Jeffrey Wright, the owner and operator of Heliplanners, a company specializing in heliport consulting, said pilots are intended to follow two different flight paths. The paths fly over the UCLA campus from the northwest and northeast, and both land at two helipads on the roof of the Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
“We tried to keep away as much of the noise as possible over the campus,” he said.
But residents at the meeting said the flight paths were not always being followed and they wanted to know why.
Atkinson said that though the helicopters land at the UCLA hospital, the hospital does not control the pilots and the pilots cannot always follow the exact routes as proposed.
The pilot is ultimately in charge of the path he chooses, and he must adjust his choice based on the prevailing winds and the safety of the flight, Wright said.
But there are actions that can be taken to encourage the pilots to follow the proposed flight paths more closely, he said.
He said he would hold a meeting with the pilots to inform them of the noise complaints, asking the residents to give him time to reach out to the pilots.
“Sometimes it takes time to make it work,” he said.
On average, there are two helicopter landings per day at the UCLA hospital, Atkinson said.
A hospital record had 145 landings over 71 days logged, though some exceptions exist: During the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth, up to eight landings may have been made, Wright said.
“Some days there may be four or five landings,” he said. “Some days there may be six, or some days perhaps none.”
Wright said the meeting held last Thursday was not an unusual occurrence, explaining that it is common after the construction of a new hospital for residents to complain about helicopter noise.
One resident proposed the creation of an e-mail address, at which residents could write to log the noise complaints, a suggestion to which Atkinson agreed.
UCLA hospital wants to do what it can to eradicate the noise for North Village residents, he said.
“We certainly regret that this is a problem,” he added.
The Westwood neighbors also said they recognized the importance of the hospital and only wished to create communication links regarding the issue in an attempt to help solve it.
“UCLA is a wonderful neighbor,” the North Village occupant said. “You borrow a cup of sugar any time.”
The residents were thankful that a meeting had been held and that a dialogue regarding the noise had been created.
“Kudos to all of you who supported this effort,” said Roxane Stern, a North Village resident, in an e-mailed statement. “The speakers seemed genuinely concerned about our problem.”