Hawaiian tour industry officials have leapt to the defense ofHeli-USA Airways after the helicopter tour operator suffered itssecond fatal crash in as many years this week. “I have everyconfidence in these guys,” Mike Stewart, a local tour companyoperator who books flights with Heli-USA, http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/NEWS01/703090345″target=”_blank”>told the Honolulu Advertiser. “I put my daughteralone on their flight.” Three of seven people aboard the Heli-USAAerospatiale A-Star died in the crash near Princeville on theHawaiian island of Kauai on Thursday afternoon. A fourth died on theway to hospital, and the survivors were critically injured. Among thedead is pilot “Helicopter Joe” Sulak, who was reported by thenewspaper to have more than 10,000 hours in the A-Star. TheAdvertiser said Sulak reported unspecified hydraulics problems abouttwo miles from the airport and the helicopter crashed just short ofthe Princeville runway. It was the fifth fatal air tour crash onKauai in four years and the second for Heli-USA. The tourhelicopter crashes in Hawaii were partly responsible for the FAA’sestablishment of new air tour safety standards that were included ina final rule enacted last Feb. 13. The previous Heli-USA crash, inwhich an A-Star ditched in the ocean off Kauai in September of 2005,led to the requirement that air-tour helicopters operating over waterbe equipped with inflatable emergency floats. In that crash, whichultimately killed all six on board (three died in the helicopter, twodrowned and one died of a heart attack after almost drowning), theNTSB faulted the pilot for continuing the flight into adverse weather.
