Helicopters come and go from three heliports on the edges of Manhattan, carrying sightseers, weekenders headed for the Hamptons and corporate executives. Occasionally, they crash, as one did in the Hudson River last Wednesday.

Nobody was seriously hurt in that accident, but the videos were spectacular enough to set off a debate about helicopter traffic.

“At a certain point, the city has to decide if the economic benefits or the ease of travel for people of means is worth the risk,” Adrian Benepe, a former city parks commissioner, said.

How many helicopters are up there?

Just a few years ago, more than 60,000 flights a year took off from the city’s public heliports, which are near Wall Street, at East 34th Street and at West 30th Street. But in 2016, the city reached a compromise with helicopter operators to cut the number of flights in half.

That agreement applied to sightseeing trips, which account for most of the flights around the city. Those flights are now confined to the downtown heliport, limited to flying over water and banned on Sundays.