U.S. Rep. Ed Case said he reintroduced his Safe and Quiet Skies Act because the Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t carried out its duty to ensure the safety of commercial air tour operations.
“Tour helicopter operations in Hawaii and elsewhere have proven to be dangerous operations,” Case, a Hawaii Democrat, said in an online interview Friday. “And what’s worse, the Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of those operations, has not done so. And that’s not me talking. This is the National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, who have to go in there and investigate and clean up deadly crashes like we saw in Dillingham Air Field with the parachutists, and on Kauai and in Kailua. And the one that just happened on Hawaii Island a few months ago, where nobody was killed but they were hurt and could’ve easily been killed. The NTSB says it doesn’t have the ability to regulate for safety, but it has publicly stated — which is very unusual for the NTSB — that the FAA is not accepting (the NTSB’s) safety regulation recommendations.
“These are people who have to clean up crashes and remove bodies so, you know, I’m going to take them seriously on their word.”
The measure, House Resolution 1071, would, among other things, require that tour flights fly above the 1,500-foot altitude over actual ground at all times with very limited exceptions for emergencies and takeoff and landing. Allowable levels of noise for tour flights over occupied areas — including residential, commercial and recreational areas — would be louder than 55 decibels, the same level of noise commonly allowed for residential areas. The bill would also and prohibit tour flights over military installations, national cemeteries, national wilderness areas, national parks and national wildlife refuges.
The bill, reintroduced on Feb 17 — just as Congress is considering the re authorization of the FAA — would further authorize state and local governments to restrict the operation of commercial tour aircraft to address noise and other community disruption.
Case cited the example of a disrupted military funeral at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in Honolulu.
“I had a veteran call me who was, basically, laying a loved one to rest in Punchbowl,” he said. “And that service was disrupted by tour helicopters that wanted to fly over Punchbowl.
“Now, I don’t think tour helicopters should fly over or near Punchbowl.”
Case first introduced the legislation in 2021. It was referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and, subsequently, the Aviation Subcommittee but no hearings were scheduled.
Case’s reintroduced measure has several co-introducers. They include: Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-Washington, D.C., the senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to which the bill was referred and which will address FAA re-authorization; Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Small Business Committee; and Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.; Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.; and Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii.
“I’ve got a lot of good co-sponsors on my bill this time around, because as I predicted a few years ago, this isn’t just about Hawaii,” Case said. “This is going to catch up with the rest of the country.”
In a Tuesday statement Nadler called low-flying helicopters and small planes “both a nuisance and a clear danger.”
“Last year, nearly 8,000 commercial air tours flew over National Parks of New York Harbor Management Unit sites, which include national treasures like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island,” Nadler said. “… I have repeatedly called on the FAA to impose additional regulations to address this issue.
“Not only has the FAA failed to act, they recently agreed to a new voluntary agreement with helicopter tour operators that makes the situation worse.”
The bill also requires the FAA to make aggregated information about noise complaints available to the public and includes Case’s request to direct the FAA to work with other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to participate in community engagement to address noise concerns.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.