TRAVEL ADVISORY; U.S. Tightens Rules On Hawaii Air Tours
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New rules took effect last month tightening safety requirements for air tour operators in Hawaii, where a recent spate of crashes has alarmed Federal safety officials. The Hawaiian air tour industry carries about 400,000 sightseers over the islands and near their volcanoes each year. In the past three years 24 passengers have been killed on such flights, most recently when a helicopter crashed in July. That accident, which killed three people, was one of two helicopter crashes in a single week, and the 11th crash in just six months in which people were killed or injured while touring Hawaii by air. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation accidents and makes recommendations for avoiding them, has been concerned about Hawaii’s safety record for years. In February 1993 it urged the Federal Aviation Administration to place tour operators in Hawaii and elsewhere under the same rules that govern commuter and air taxi flights, instead of the more lenient rules that apply to tourism. But the agency has not yet decided whether to take that step. Aside from Hawaii, sightseeing flights at the Grand Canyon have also been plagued with accidents, some of them fatal, in recent years. Among the rules the F.A.A. adopted in Hawaii are those making single-engine helicopters carry emergency flotation devices; requiring pilots to operate according to a carefully prepared flight plan accounting for the plane’s weight and performance, and prohibiting flights closer than 1,500 feet to the ground or water, except during takeoff and landing. JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr. Source : query.nytimes.com |