Long threatened with closure, the Paris-Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport will remain open and has been renamed this Tuesday, March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day. It will now bear the name of Valérie André, a helicopter pilot who notably distinguished herself in Indochina and Algeria.
While the Parisian municipality wanted it closed, in particular to enlarge the Suzanne Lenglen park (15th), the destiny of the heliport took a new turn, taking the name of Valérie André at the initiative of the town hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux (92).
In a speech directed towards this resistant, illustrious helicopter pilot, the Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari assured that “the men [n’avaient] not the monopoly of heroism”.
“Any more than they have the monopoly of the army, of medals, of positions of responsibility. All your life, Madame le Général, you have endeavored to demonstrate this. Women can do anything. The only condition is to want it”, he testified.
the first woman promoted to general honored
“In honor of a heroine, the first woman to be promoted to general, the heliport at Issy-les-Moulineaux bears the name of Doctor General Valérie André since March 8. Its history is inseparable from this platform, essential to health missions”, also communicated in the process. the ADP groupformerly Aéroports de Paris.
Valérie André, 100 years old in a month, resistance fighter at 17, doctor-captain in 1948 in Indochina, helicopter pilot to evacuate the wounded (she will evacuate 165), 350 missions in Algeria, general in 1976, one could not baptize better Issy les Moulineaux heliport. https://t.co/ZYci9JoNE1
— Augustin de Romanet (@Romanet) March 8, 2022
In the presence of @Romanet & @maunourycValérie André unveiled the heliport plaque that will now bear her name!
1st woman promoted to general officer, Valérie André carried out her missions as a helicopter pilot in the combat zones of Indochina and Algeria pic.twitter.com/hmsrX1H5eI
– Prefecture of the Île-de-France region (@Prefet75_IDF) March 8, 2022
Is the heliport saved for all that? For several years, it has been at the heart of a showdown between the City of Paris and the State, while the concession for the site awarded to Aéroports de Paris comes to an end in 2024. A contract which therefore expires, which is timely for the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who had plans to partially close the heliport as part of her anti-noise plan.
A heliport deemed “essential”
Opposite, the direction of civil aviation, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, wants to do everything to keep it. Because the structure is considered essential to the missions carried out by Civil Security. For example, it was widely used at the height of the pandemic, to urgently transport certain people with Covid, but well before during the attacks of November 13, for example.
A site “essential to the Paris region”, according to Thierry Couderc, the general delegate of the French Helicopter Union. According to his remarks in Le Parisien, “a lot of progress has been made” to reduce the noise of helicopters. “There are no more”, he assures, “the Alouettes 3 of Civil Security which made a high-pitched noise”. According to him, the platform does not accommodate more than twenty movements per day and cannot exceed 50 daily movements on weekends.
If no information on this subject has been revealed to date, the decision to close the heliport will in any case be up to the State, which had already refused it in 2015. Indeed, the concession between the city of Paris and ADP is taken pursuant to a framework agreement signed in 1994 between the State and the City of Paris. And this affirms the maintenance of the heliport.