Helicopter Grounded After Back-Yard Landings

There are places where helicopter landings are allowed, but Northridge yards are not among them.

Ezra Raiten, 37, a developer, was cited by the Los Angeles Fire Department on Friday for landing a helicopter in his back yard without a city permit. Neighbors complained to police about four takeoffs and landings Friday afternoon and at least one incident Thursday and another Sunday, Fire Capt. James Gaffney said.

Fire officials grounded the jet-powered, single-engine Aerospatiale AS-350 helicopter and ordered Raiten to remove it by trailer, Gaffney said. The French-made aircraft is registered to Raiten Development Corp., he said.

Raiten’s purpose in flying the chopper into the quiet residential neighborhood was not known, Gaffney said.

Raiten had an attorney with him when fire officials questioned him, “and there wasn’t much conversation,” Gaffney said.

Fire officials on Monday will notify the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses and polices pilots, of the incident.

The likelihood of the city issuing Raiten a permit to use his back yard as a helicopter pad is nil, Gaffney said.

“There’s no way we would allow that,” he said. “There’s just no way. You just can’t do it.”

Aside from the safety and noise concerns associated with landing near homes, the Raiten property is about 200 yards from Balboa Boulevard Elementary School, he said. Several people who called to complain about the helicopter were worried about the safety of children in the area, he said.

Richard Johnson, 14, who lives just north of Raiten’s property in the 17000 block of Lassen Street, said the helicopter’s passing overhead was “loud enough to jitter things around” in his back yard. But he said it didn’t bother him.

Raiten declined to comment.