Ka‘ū News Briefs, Friday, May 1, 2020

Hawaiʻi Volcano Expeditions used this image to advertiser trips from Oʻahu to fly over Kīlauea Volcano when it was erupting. A U.S. Circuit Court ordered the FAA and National Park Service today to regulate helicopter and small plane flights over National Parks. Photo from Hawaiʻi Volcano Expeditions

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ORDERED ENFORCEMENT OF AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT PLANS for flights over Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and other National Parks. The order from the U.S Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia found that the FAA and National Park Service have been "underwhelming and ultimately unsuccessful" in their enforcement of federal law mandating air tour management plans."

Congressman Ed Case is a key supporter of regulating and eliminating tour helicopter and small plane flights over National Parks. He announced a major court ruling today.

     Congressman Ed Case praised the extensive ruling, noting that the federal law dates back to 2000, requiring regulation of helicopters and small aircraft tours over National Parks. He said, "The D.C. Circuit's ruling recognizes correctly that the Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service have simply not complied with the law for decades. In that period, the destruction of our national parks from virtually unregulated air tours has worsened exponentially. I expect the FAA and NPS to fully comply with the court’s order and will do all I can to assist."
     Case said that of the 23 National Parks affected by this ruling, two, among the most impacted, are Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and Haleakalā National Park. "NPS' own annual report released in October 2019 stated that Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is the most impacted by tour helicopter flights of all Parks across the country, with 8,333 flights in the prior year, or some 22 flights per day, 365 days per year," said Case. "That number is down from double in previous years, when the Volcano was erupting.

A helicopter photo from the HICOP website.

     That same report showed Haleakalā National Park on Maui as the fourth most impacted, with 4,757 flights in the prior year. "At that level of overflights, the peace, serenity, and sanctity of our parks is destroyed and one of the core purposes of our parks is utterly defeated," said Case.
     "In addition to the complete degradation of the Park experience, life in the surrounding communities over which the tour helicopters fly to access the parks is to many resident unbearable and the heightened safety risks are clear."
     Case said the court ordered the two agencies to produce a schedule within 120 days of the issuance of the opinion, for bringing all 23 Parks into compliance, and to complete the task in two years as originally mandated by Congress.
     The case arose originally from a suit brought by the Hawai‘i Island Coalition Malama Pono (HiCOP) and the Washington, DC-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, claiming that the FAA and NPS had failed to implement plans to manage competing uses under the Air Tour Management Plan Act of 2000 and subsequent legislation.
     In agreeing, the three-judge panel for the D.C. Court of Appeals noted that the Air Tour Management Plan Act of 2000 directed the FAA and NPS to "make every effort" to establish rules governing such flights within two years of the first application. The panel said that "although applications have been pending at 25 parks for nearly two decades, the agencies have fulfilled their statutory mandate at only two." Noting the failure to come up with the ATMPS in more than 20 years, Bob Ernst of HiCOP said his organization "joined with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to litigate the FAA/NPS in a mandamus suit asking the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to find that in fact the FAA/NPS had failed to implement the ATMPs and for the Court to direct the FAA/NPS to do so."
     Ernst said HiCOP is a non-profit with the sole purpose of returning serenity to Hawai‘i, free from tour copter noise nuisance pollution and safety from tour copter crashes.
     Paula Dinerstein, PEER General Counsel, argued the case before the court. "For almost 20 years, the FAA and the NPS have allowed an airborne reign of terror to go unmitigated over park skies," she said, promising that "PEER will work with affected communities and parks to, at long last, develop responsible air tour management plans."
     PEER describes itself as working "nationwide with government scientists, land managers, environmental law enforcement agents, field specialists, health experts, and other resource professionals committed to responsible management of America's public resources and public health."
     Last year, Case introduced H.R. 4547, The Safe and Quiet Skies Act, pointing to fatal crashes of tour helicopters and small aircraft in Hawai’i and throughout the country, along with widespread and growing community disruption from rapidly increasing and largely unregulated operations. His bill would in part prohibit tour flights over National Parks, as well as Wildlife Refuges, Wilderness Areas, military installations, and national cemeteries. States and counties would also be able to limit tour flights over their jurisdictions.
     Case also wrote last year to the FAA and NPS, objecting to their plan to limit their initial air tour management plan efforts to a few low-impact parks, and to suspend plan efforts for high impact parks like Hawai’i Volcanoes and Haleakalā. He said he is continuing his efforts this year through plan development funding through his membership on the House Appropriations Committee.
     Read the court's decision.