PORT ALLEN — If a helicopter experiences an engine problem at 500 or 2,000 feet, it’s still going to hit the ground hard. That’s Inter-Island Helicopters’ chief pilot Luca Rostagno’s rationale for opposing any efforts to change tour-helicopter rules to
PORT ALLEN — If a helicopter experiences an engine problem at 500 or 2,000 feet, it’s still going to hit the ground hard.
That’s Inter-Island Helicopters’ chief pilot Luca Rostagno’s rationale for opposing any efforts to change tour-helicopter rules to mandate that craft fly lower.
Similar rules designed to make flights safer haven’t led to fewer fatalities in the tour-helicopter business, which has a low fatality rate, he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration should look at ways other than altitude restrictions to improve tour-helicopter safety, said Rostagno, who last week spent three days recovering bodies from the scene of a Jack Harter Helicopters crash inside Wai‘ale‘ale Crater.
Helicopter operations are much safer than train or bus trips, in terms of fatalities per miles traveled or hours spent aboard, he said.
“I feel way safer in a helicopter than in any car on any road, especially on a Friday night on Kaua‘i,” he said.
