This post is about a question – whether a helicopter can really and legally land in a random fast-food parking lot or not? To begin with, you need to understand that in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration controls and manages the airspace. It allows them to make the rules mostly uniform anywhere in the United States. Local or state governments are not allowed to regulate and type of airspace activity or operation.
Now you must be wondering whether this is the answer to helicopter parking lot question. Let us tell you, answering this question about helicopter parking lot is a little complicated as the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) controls the airspace operations, local or state governments control the ground operations. According to our research, the rules in the United Kingdom and the United States, and a few other countries are exceptionally similar.
Helicopter parking lot, answer
Out of all these things, if a helicopter pilot sees and emergency and a fast-food parking lot is the best option for them to land the helicopter, they can land it in such a parking lot where there is very little fear of reprisal. In the United States, if a pilot sees an emergency in the aircraft, they can proceed with required safety measures as per the FAA guidelines. These guidelines allow them to throw most of their rules out of the window and continue with such kind of safety action.
It is also stated in the Federal Aviation Regulations – if a pilot sees an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule required to meet that emergency. And if we talk about the funny part, the FAA constitutes an emergency, stating it as “a distress or urgency situation.” Technically, this means if you just need to pee and want to land the helicopter in a random fast-food parking lot, that can certainly constitute an urgent situation in which you are also at some level of distress. The FAA also allows its investigators to be extremely lenient about such rule-breaking events during an emergency.
Let’s say if someone having a meal at the McDonald’s had a heart attack and required airlifting; these helicopters are allowed to land at the said restaurant without needing any further permission. To conclude, in the United States and the United Kingdom, helicopters are legally allowed to land in any fast-food parking lot without needing any further permission. But there are some cases where pilots can’t land helicopters, and that is due to space. In case, pilots are unable to find adequate space to make the helicopter land; they avoid the landing to prevent any damage or reprisal.
