Querying the necessity of low-flying helicopters

The head of the Government Flying Services may well be proud of his department's achievement in increasing the number of helicopter flying hours by about 25 per cent during 1996, but is he conscious of the negative environmental impact? My village home and the nearby Salvation Army Home for the Aged in Sha Tin are increasingly being subjected to the sudden thunderous roar of low-flying helicopters.

This deafening noise must be particularly unpleasant for elderly residents.

Hong Kong continues to spoil its environment with traffic noise and air pollution in the name of so-called progress but do we really need the added pollution of low-flying helicopters buzzing our homes? What essential service are these aircraft providing? I understand the benefits of emergency casualty evacuations of the seriously ill or injured but I suspect that only a small portion of the 5,713 helicopter flying hours flown last year were related to this service, so who is using the helicopters and for what purpose? Is it possible that civil servants can no longer endure the heavy traffic, which we ordinary mortals have to face each day, and find it easier to hitch a helicopter ride? The enormous expense of running helicopters does not justify this concept, especially in a territory which can be traversed from one end to the other in little more than an hour by road.

This is one environment destroyer that the public can well do without.

P A CRUSH Sha Tin