There are people who take a pass on helicopter tours, even when, on vacation, the opportunity can afford unequaled views, and even though the vast majority of those flights end satisfactorily and safely.
Monday’s horrific tragedy in Kailua, in which the crash of a tour helicopter killed the young pilot and his two passengers, underscored why those naysayers feel the way they do, and may have given potential passengers reason to hesitate as well.
The accident is now under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which recently has pushed for stricter requirements for this type of commercial helicopter services, currently not required to have the same safety equipment and training programs as commercial airlines.
This is especially distressing to residents of Kailua, who by some small chance all escaped injury in the crash shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, in which the wreckage of the Robinson R44 was strewn along often-busy Oneawa Street in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.
Helicopter tours have been a growing risk for decades, and it has to change, by controlling the scale of the operations and enforcement of the safeguards. It should be a topic of examination for lawmakers in the interim before next year’s session.
In the meantime, both local and national legislators are pressing the case, as they should, for improvements.
State Rep. Cynthia Thielen, who represents the district, had called for federal authorities to ground the tour helicopters while the problems are under investigation. That seems unnecessary, but at the very least operators need to be held to the regulations on flight paths that already are in place.
Her other proposal deserves consideration: legislation directing the state Department of Transportation to limit ground permits for tour helicopters at state airports, and instructing counties to do the same at private landing/takeoff areas.
The potential for further hazards has been accelerating, said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who represents Hawaii’s congressional 1st District. On April 4, Case wrote a letter to Raquel Girvin, regional administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees flight operations.
Among the points Case’s letter raises is his rapidly increasing concerns about “the apparent widespread disregard by tour operators for minimum altitude restrictions and apparent control by the operators of the current process to update the Hawaii Air Tour Common Procedures Manual, governing time, place, altitude and other safety and noise-related operations requirements.”
Hawaii’s former congresswoman, the late Patsy Mink, had pushed for better controls within national parks, a popular location for such flights. Her efforts culminated in the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000.
Outside the national parks, a regulation prohibits air tour flights in Hawaii from operating below 1,500 feet. But commercial tours can receive authorization to deviate from that, according to a memorandum sent to Case from the Congressional Research Service.
Clearly, these waivers should be re-examined in light of these recent — and not-so-recent — events. And those who deviate from the limits without authorization, a violation that can be easily tracked using existing technology, should be fined.
There should be tighter control on what areas flying should be more constrained, and there’s precedent for such residential-zone avoidance elsewhere in the U.S.
Helicopter flights can be thrilling for the rider and a profitable tourism element. But Hawaii has become too populated to push safety considerations to a back burner. Safety first — and immediately.
