After a rash of air tours crashes that killed foreign tourists, the FAA has responded to NTSB appeals to raise the standards in that industry. The now expanded Air Tours Safety Standards will be embracing some air tour operators who weren't hitherto covered by such a specific regulation. It's difficult to see how some of the measures could affect the casualties suffered in the typical air tours accident however. Most of these have involved low-level flights in unsuitable weather conditions. The new requirements for enhanced passenger briefings before takeoff, life preservers and helicopter floats is unlikely to "enhance" passenger survivability in the typical tourist or sight-seer's accident. It's claimed that the new standards will increase safety through improving the FAA's ability to track and monitor commercial air tour flights and help identify and address operational trends that could lead to accidents. The last part sounds a lot like raising red flags via a body count but the first part of that abstract intent is a little more perplexing. Tracking and monitoring low-level sight-seeing flights in National Parks could only be done by installing flight recorders or sneaking the odd physical "presence" on board. Perhaps by tracking and monitoring, the FAA means "just by keeping better records".
    When the FAA claims to be increasing oversight, that usually means that it will be cranking up a new database for trend detection as well as increasing reporting requirements. Routine physical covert monitoring of the conduct of air tours pilots is probably not on that agenda. One aspect that will possibly have an affect is the increase from 200 to 500 hours for the minimum experience levels of private pilots conducting freebie flights for charities.
    On 13 February the NTSB will be underlining its concerns by holding public hearings into two Hawaiian air tours helicopter accidents.
    On September 24, 2004, a Bell 206B helicopter air tour flight encountered instrument meteorological conditions and crashed into mountainous terrain in Kalaheo, Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. The pilot and the four passengers were killed, and impact forces and post impact fire destroyed the helicopter.
    On September 23, 2005, an Aerospatiale helicopter sightseeing air tour flight encountered adverse weather and crashed into the Pacific Ocean several hundred feet off the coast of Kailiu Point, near Haena, Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. Three of the five passengers died of drowning or drowning-related circumstances, and the pilot and two other passengers received minor injuries.
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