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Mayor Daley responded a couple days later by suggesting that Reilly and critics of the plan were more concerned about noise the helicopters would make than about the lives of children. In a subsequent interview, Reilly politely returned the put-down. “I knew the mayor was supportive of the helipad portion of the project,” Reilly said. “Our only real difference of opinion here is that I think the city has an obligation to show that this is not a risk to public safety before we approve it.”
The hospital’s plan [PDF] “paints a very rosy picture of rooftop heliport operations” though it would require pilots to “fly into a hostile physical environment,” Doub writes in his analysis. According to him, the hospital’s plan doesn’t provide adequate emergency landing space, and the proposed helipad is too small and, at 411 feet, too high to be safe for certain helicopters and weather conditions. He concludes that “Children’s Memorial Hospital has not addressed all of the issues necessary to operate this heliport in a manner consistent with current aviation safety practices.”
Traditionally the City Council doesn’t approve projects that don’t have the local alderman’s consent, but if Reilly ends up rejecting the helipad plan—he says he doesn’t expect to, though the conversation he asked for hasn’t taken place so far—Daley might start lining up the votes to go around him.
