Says Remedies Based On Two Accidents Trigger Heavy-Handed Oversight

The US Air Tour Association feels the National Transportation and Safety Board’s recent November 8 recommendations for air tour operators are unfair, unjustified and misleading -- and says the Board is singling out the commercial air tour industry nationwide and making it a target for its own brand of "special" attention.

The USATA also said the recommendations are neither justified nor deserved, and that they are troubled by the timing.

As ANN reported, the NTSB recommendations include the FAA requiring all commercial air tour operators to maintain a record of passenger complaints, maintain contact information on all passengers, implement an on-board monitoring system, and for the FAA to conduct more frequent route-specific flight observations.

The Grand Canyon air tour industry is composed of highly professional companies with decades of dedicated safe service to its customers, the USATA said. "These are companies that fly nearly a million passengers a year to see the Grand Canyon and annually fly hundreds of thousands of flight hours safely and have amassed an impressive safety record.

"The Board is using two isolated accidents more than four and six years ago respectively to paint the two companies involved, the Grand Canyon commercial air tour industry, and commercial air tour operators everywhere as having systemic safety problems," USATA added.

Since the occurrence of two accidents years apart are in question, the NTSB acknowledged numerous internal accident prevention initiatives have been implemented, and these are beyond those which were already in place.

The two accidents noted by the NTSB were isolated occurrences two years apart and, while tragic, are neither a reflection of the overall exceptional safety record of the Grand Canyon air tour industry or these operators individually.

Operators are suspect of the NTSB after operators challenged results of an investigation.

While some of these recommendations are troubling and require further scrutiny, they are hardly of a substantive nature worthy of a reopening of the public dialogue of these two accidents or the safety of the Grand Canyon air tour industry.

Air tour pilots flying over the Grand Canyon and elsewhere are regularly observed, and given proficiency check rides. Some operations even record video of each flight, or use monitoring systems.

USATA says that the Grand Canyon operators are already under a microscope.

"The commercial air tour industry generally and Grand Canyon air tour operators specifically are the most regulated and scrutinized segment of the aviation industry and regularly seek to ensure the safety of their operations by all means possible," according to the organization.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.usata-dc.com/