Helikoptersikkerhet USA - mange diskusjoner, men ingen ting skjer - Curt Lewis

FAA Administrator Dickson Stresses Safety at Heli-Expo


Making his first appearance at Heli-Expo as FAA Administrator, Stephen Dickson delivered a safety-focused message to show attendees. Photo: Mariano Rosales

His safety theme was cast in sharp relief by the helicopter accident that claimed Kobe Bryant and eight others on the eve of the gathering, "only 50 miles away from the convention center," Dickson said. "Whatever the investigations ultimately determine, all of us in this room know that all too often helicopter accidents turned out to have been preventable."

The former airline and fighter pilot admitted he has little background in helicopters. "I'm a student and I'm here to learn from you," he told attendees. "But it's clear to me from a professional perspective that rotary-wing aviation is a central element of our transportation system."

Comprising about 6 percent of general aviation aircraft in the U.S., helicopters make a "significant and even disproportionate" impact "when you count the benefits," Dickson said, noting applications include medevac, search-and-rescue, fire-suppression, and air-taxi operations.

But traditional views of the industry are outdated, given the rise of drones and the nascent urban mobility industry, he added. Since the FAA established a mandatory registry four years ago, more than 1.5 million drones have been registered-some 400,000 of them for commercial use-and the agency has already approved 27 operators under Part 137 to use drones commercially to perform aerial applications.

Three years ago, the FAA "shifted our strategy from writing rules to getting machines in the air and flying, and taking lessons learned from the operations approval process to write better rules," he said, an approach that "can help us ensure innovation can drive forward." The FAA is currently conducting trials for package deliveries by drone with UPS and FedEx, among others.

Meanwhile, electric flying taxis are quickly moving "from prototype to testing," Dickson said, and the agency is "currently engaged with the builders of more than 15 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft projects."

Helicopters have a fatal accident rate of about 0.63 per 100,000 hours., EVTOL passengers of tomorrow will expect "the [near-zero] level of safety achieved by the airlines," Dickson said, underscoring safety's critical role in industry growth.

As for current issues, Dickson cited the safety of air-tour operations and noise as particular problem areas. "I'm here to tell you this needs to change," he said. "There's a lot of energy in Congress as it relates to safety and noise concerns. If we can't take meaningful action on both of these fronts very soon, I suspect that path forward might be dictated to us."

Promising paths for enhancing safety include risk-based decision-making; implementation of safety management systems; sharing of best industry practices; and ensuring operators have clear channels for employees to report safety concerns, without fear of retribution, he said.

Dickson also cited FAA helicopter safety initiatives including its Helicopter Safety Team's new "Workshop in a Box" program. "We're serious about getting on top of safety challenges you face in the industry," he concluded. "The FAA is ready to work together with you."

Sightseeing Helicopters Need More Safety Regulations, Say Lawmakers


A growing number of sightseeing aircraft crashed last year in Hawaii and Alaska.

Getting a birds-eye view of Hawaii's volcanic craters, stunning waterfalls, and breathtaking canyons-as offered by the area's many helicopter tours-is easily the highlight of any trip to the Aloha state. And as the islands' tourism numbers have steadily increased, so has the popularity of their air sightseeing tours.

But with the number of helicopter tours rising, the amount of fatal crashes on tour aircraft in the state has also increased, leading lawmakers to call for stricter safety oversight of helicopters and other small charter planes. In 2019 there were three such crashes in Hawaii that killed a total of 21 people-most recently on December 26 when a sightseeing helicopter went down near Kauai's Na Pali Coast, killing all seven people on board. There were no fatal tour crashes in Hawaii in 2018, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.

"The rapidly mounting loss of life and ground risks from Hawai'i air tour helicopter/small aircraft crashes should be tragedy enough and spark unanimous concern for the basic safety of these operations," congressman Ed Case said in a statement on January 15. Case has introduced the Safe and Quiet Skies Act, which would prohibit air operators around the country from offering flight tours over protected areas, including national parks. This move would greatly impact the popular and lucrative helicopter tourism business in Hawaii. It also forbids pilots from acting as tour guides, among other changes.

Case also noted in the statement that there have been "54 ... tour helicopter/small aircraft accidents across the country in just the past five years, of which fully nine (17 percent of all accidents nationally) occurred in Hawai'i."

The trend is "worrisome," says Paul Cline, assistant professor of aviation at the City University of New York. Pilot training requirements, he says, can be more lax for tour pilots than those at the helm of traditional airline carriers. "[Tour] pilots can range from several hundred hours experience to seasoned pilots with thousands of hours," he says. "Many tour pilots are 'building time,' earning the required number of hours to get a job with an airline or large operator with more opportunities and better pay and working conditions. This is a huge problem because your best people are always leaving. Additionally, their training opportunities are also extremely limited."

Another factor could be the very specific way that pilots fly tour flights. There are two main ways for a pilot to operate a helicopter. The first is based on the readings of flight instruments in the cockpit-called instrument flight rules-which allows a pilot to fly in low-visibility weather or at night. The second is based on visual cues on the ground, called visual flight rules only. Depending on visual cues can mean trouble if the helicopter finds itself in low visibility conditions, according to Cline. In that situation, it's common that "the pilot inadvertently flies into bad weather, becomes spatially disoriented, and crashes," he says. Flying only with visual cues-a common practice among air tour operators-can be dangerous in an area known for its quick-changing weather conditions. At least one of the Hawaii helicopter crashes occurred on a low visibility day, according to the preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Air tour crashes aren't unique to Hawaii, however. Similar incidents also spiked last year in Alaska with fatal crashes involving at least four float planes, a type of sightseeing aircraft popular in the state. (Two sightseeing planes carrying tourists collided in mid-air on May 13. The other float planes were operating charter flights and also crashed in May.) The NTSB's initial crash report says that just before the two sightseeing planes collided, one of the pilots was maneuvering the plane to show passengers a closer view of a waterfall. (Keep in mind that there are more than 300 of these type of air carriers in Alaska, according to the most recent government data.)
In the wake of these growing incidents, the NTSB has called for more safety regulations among these type of small tour aircraft, whose collective regulatory term is Part 135 planes and includes helicopters, float planes, and other small on-demand aircraft.

"Each crash underscores the urgency of improving the safety of charter flights by implementing existing NTSB safety recommendations," NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a statement after the May 2019 crashes in Alaska. "A customer who pays for a ticket should trust that the operator is using the industry's best practices when it comes to safety."
But while the NTSB can investigate crashes and recommend safety changes, it's not a regulatory body and it can't enforce new requirements. That responsibility falls to Congress or the Federal Aviation Administration.

Filling the void are industry groups, such as the Air Charter Safety Foundation, which advise Part 135 aircraft operators on how to improve their safety measures. In a letter of response to the NTSB's Most Wanted requirements, ACSF President Bryan Burns recommended that companies with Part 135 planes "discuss the Most Wanted list recommendations with their executive teams," "implement a safety management system," and "consider implementing flight data monitoring" among other suggestions.
Of course, there are a multitude of air tour companies that adhere to these and other stringent safety requirements. Cline says that rather than avoid these type of tours altogether, passengers should do their research on the company's safety skills before booking a tour. "Check them out on the NTSB website, BBB website, the state regulatory agency website," he says. "Additionally, do not fly in bad weather," especially because of the way air tour business models operate, he says. "Many times, if the pilot does not fly they do not get paid. There is an unspoken and unacknowledged pressure to fly when it would have been better to cancel."
That skepticism, above all, could be the most important. "Too often the American public assumes a plane is a plane is a plane," Cline says. "Nothing could be further from the truth. If the weather is bad, do not fly" in a helicopter.