Hudson River Park Trust

West 30th Street Heliport: Safety and Security

The Hudson River Park Trust is a public benefit corporation responsible for planning, developing, constructing, operating and maintaining a planned 550-acre park in New York City. The West 30th Street Heliport is located in the park. The Heliport, which is managed by a private company pursuant to a lease agreement with Hudson River Park Trust, is used by sightseeing, corporate and charter helicopter carriers. The New York State Anti-terrorism Preparedness Act of 2004 requires general aviation airports and heliports to file a security plan with the State Department of Transportation. We examined the Heliport’s compliance with this plan as well as other safety and security-related practices. We were assisted by the New York State Office of Homeland Security and the New York City Police Department.

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 Hudson River Park Trust 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 2006-S-23 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.