SANTA BARBARA – The new Cottage Hospital helipad is causing some neighbors to get upset over noise levels but the hospital is working to cut down on helicopter noise.
Since February 3, 14 helicopters have used the helipad to bring in trauma, stroke and pediatric patients to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.
With the new addition of the helipad comes new noise and some neighbors are not happy about it.
"There's a lot of different helicopter providers which use different types of aircrafts and you know a windy day like today it may require more power which will be noisier to land," said Trauma Director Dr. Steve Kaminski.
Some residents in the area said the noise is a disturbance but they understand the reason for the landings.
Dr. Kaminski said the helicopters are only used when an ambulance is not quick enough to save someone's life.
In the two weeks since the helipad opened for use, more than a dozen helicopters have used it. Two of those helicopters did not follow the designated flight path causing more noise as they flew over houses.
The plan is to have the helicopters follow the path of Highway 101 and then over Junipero Street. The hospital will work to inform the pilots about the designated route.
"We've never had a helipad here in Santa Barbara before so we're in the first two weeks of it, we're trying to iron out these things and we hope it will become more streamlined and more tolerable to the local community," said Dr. Kaminski.
The hospital had a community meeting on Monday to discuss the issue and will host a second meeting on March 13 to see how they can work with the neighbors.
