Limited Tours, Outright Ban Both Up For Consideration

The National Parks Service and the FAA are working on a federally-mandated plan that could limit, or ban, aerial sightseeing tours over Mt. Ranier National Park. While no specific limits have yet been discussed,both are options that could be proposed by the public.

A federal law passed in 2000 put a moratorium on the number of sightseeing tours that could be flown over National Parks, as well as the types of aircraft used for those tours, pending the formulation of individual plans at each of the parks around the country.

The Seattle Times reports that there are currently five operators who offer aerial tours of the park, and combined they fly about 113 tours over the park each year. By contrast, Grand Canyon National Park has thousands of sightseeing flights in its airspace every year. The low number of flights is attributed at least in part to the weather around the mountain, which is often not conducive to sightseeing.

Still, Mt. Ranier is the principal attraction for the sightseeing flights, and it is also the reason that the park is first in line in Washington State for the formulation of a plan.

The park reports that more than 90 percent of its visitors who responded to a survey said "natural quiet" is one of the parks key attributes. There are also reportedly some animals in the park, such as mountain goats, which are sensitive to noise.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.nps.gov