One sound high school graduates – or anyone on the ground for that matter – won’t hear this Friday night is a helicopter over downtown Renton.

Unless, of course, it’s on an emergency flight or a regularly scheduled flight.

Friday night is graduation for the city’s roughly 675 high school seniors. It’s a night full of tradition, except not for a short-lived one.

Because of numerous noise complaints last year, AirO Inc., which flies helicopter charters out of Renton Municipal Airport, is not offering Grad Night flights this year.

The flights were part of the Grad Night activities planned by parents and paid for by the students. They were wildly popular, drawing hundreds of grads from Renton and surrounding schools for short scenic nighttime flights over the city.

But all those flights over several nights added up to fitful sleep for those on the ground. They made their complaints known.

There were no complaints the first year of the flights, so Air O owner Michael O’Leary said last year’s complaints caught him by surprise. He offered the flights to help keep the seniors safe.

“There were too many complaints,” he said. “There was a plus side, it just wasn’t enough.

“Hopefully, kids won’t be out drinking and driving,” he said.

In a story in the Renton Reporter last June, O’Leary said he was trying to figure out why there were so many complaints. He said one night the flights lasted for about three hours, rather than the more typical one hour from 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. because of the need to get so many students in the air.

The first year, he used one helicopter for the flights; last year he used two to accommodate the increased demand. The price for the ride was $25 to $35 per person, he said.

O’Leary said he tried to figure out a solution before finally deciding to cancel the flights this year, but nothing worked. He’s also in discussions with City of Renton officials about fire-code issues at his hangar at the airport. He is not allowed to host large groups in the hangar, many of which also planned to take the flights.

O’Leary said he didn’t have to cancel any Grad Night contracts, but other customers were “left high and dry. Some of them weren’t too happy,” he said.

Gregg Zimmerman, the city’s public works director, said one of the key issues was last year’s neighborhood outcry. He doesn’t think Air0 anticipated the reaction “and we certainly didn’t anticipate that level of impact on the community. We all had an eye-opening experience.”

Zimmerman said the fire code issue is related to the number of people O’Leary can have in his hangar. Resolution will require some bonding and upgrades to the facility, he said.