CAA: GA News, "Helicopter Operators Decry Regulatory Blowback"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, October 25, 2001

Operators Decry Regulatory Blowback
Helicopter News


New FAA regs designed to increase airport security and assuage the
public's fear of flying are often ineffective and sometimes do more to
harm the domestic General Aviation industry than they do to protect the
public, many civil helicopter operators say.

For example, in the aftermath of September 11, Part 91 corporate
operations were grounded inside "Enhanced Class B" airspace, but not
Part 135 air taxi flights.

This means that a corporate-owned helicopter with well known executives
onboard could not fly from, say, the General Aviation airport in
Gaithersburg, Maryland, to Dulles International Airport in Herndon,
Virginia just outside Washington, DC. However, the FAA regs
theoretically allow an unknown stranger -- a terrorist conceivably -- to
charter a helicopter flight to and from these same locations.

Civil operators refuse to voice this criticism publicly. They say they
are highly sympathetic to the government's security concerns and want to
work cooperatively with regulators. But as one official told R&W: "There
are huge gaping holes in the regs, tremendous safety gaps and
contradictions that just don't make any sense... The [flight
restrictions] probably won't affect the terrorists, but they're
certainly hurting us."

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http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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