Don’t be surprised if you see a helicopter flying over the capital this Saturday, May 14. The operation – validated by the Paris police headquarters – should make it possible to replace air conditioning elements on the roof of the François Mitterrand Library (BnF).
In the morning this Saturday, a twin-turbine helicopter of the Super Puma type was indeed authorized by the Paris police headquarters (PP) to fly over the capital, and more particularly the Quai François Mauriac, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, “at an altitude of 1,500 feet, or 450 meters”.
#Information | This Saturday, May 14, a helicopter will fly over the 13th arrondissement of #Paris in the context of helicopter transport of air conditioning elements on the roof of @theBnF.
Traffic and public access will be prohibited on certain axes.
more info in our press release pic.twitter.com/WoKlbw0BG5
— Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) May 11, 2022
An exceptional authorization – the helicopters being supposed to respect the navigation corridors located above the Seine and the ring road – in order to access one of the roofs of the BnF. There, a specialized company must carry out the “helicopter transport of air conditioning elements”.
An operation, however, far from trivial, since, “for security reasons”, traffic and public access will be prohibited on certain axes. In particular on avenue Raymond Aron in its entirety and on avenue de France, between avenue Raymond Aron and avenue Alphonse Boudard, and this, “during the entire duration of the operations”, specifies the PP.
This is not the first time that specialized companies have been authorized to carry out such operations using helicopters. In 2020, a helicopter had already been used to transport air conditioning units to the roof of a building in the La Défense business district (92).