HAI, FAA Plan Air Tours Safety Summit

The Helicopter Assn International and the FAA plan to hold a "summit" meeting in Hawaii on the safety of U.S. air tour operations next month. Concerned that those operations are now at a point where the U.S. emergency medical service sector was two years ago, leaders of the trade group and the agency want to convey the need for operators to tackle safety challenges seriously and immediately. Two years ago, the EMS sector faced a chronic accident rate and special investigations of its safety practices by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA, and the congressional Government Accountability Office--and the negative press associated with all that. The air tours safety summit, slated for May 22-24, was provoked in part by new regulatory requirements on all tour operators and three recent Hawaiian events--the March 8 crash of a Eurocopter AS350BA at Princeville that killed four, the March 11 crash of an McDonnel Douglas 369FF at Haena that killed, and the March 28 hard landing of an AS350BA at Kahului. For related news