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Stiffer Safety Rules for Air Tour Operators

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 11, 2007

• Be a Traveler, Not a Target • Money Solutions for the Traveler • Travel News

Between 1988 and 1995, there were 139 crashes involving aircraft flown by sightseeing tour companies.

In one of those accidents, on Feb. 14, 1995, eight people lost their lives near the Grand Canyon when a sightseeing craft went down.

Eight more were killed in a pair of accidents in Hawaii during the last four years.

Those statistics don’t sit well with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has imposed new safety restrictions for both helicopters and planes operated by air tour companies.

The new rules require small tour operators to register with the FAA, allow pilots to be tested for substance abuse, and mandate pontoons or flotation devices for aircraft operating over water (a 2005 helicopter crash off the Hawaiian island of Kauai cost three lives when the craft sank).

In addition, pilots giving tours at charity events must have a commercial license or 500 hours of flying time, an increase over the current 200 hours.

Larger tour operators, including most of those at the Grand Canyon, in Alaska, and in Hawaii, would be subject to even stricter regulations.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which determines crash causes for both large and small aircraft, had been calling for stricter standards since 1995, after a pair of air tour crashes in Hawaii.

The FAA followed in 2003 with proposals for stricter safety standards for air tour operators. They were delayed by objections from the industry.

The new rules, weaker than those proposed four years ago, seem to satisfy most members of the U.S. Air Tours Association and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

When the rules go into effect next month, air tour operators will receive levels of oversight relative to their size: small, medium, and large.

According to FAA administrator Marion Blakey, "These new standards will increase overall air tour safety, improve the FAA’s ability to track and monitor commercial air tour flights, and help us identify and address operational trends that could lead to accidents."

Operators have 18 months to add flotation devices to helicopters.

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