Congressman Case Urges Public Comment Supporting Ban On Commercial Tour Helicopter/Small Aircraft Overflights Of Hawaii's Two National Parks

Press Release

Congressman Ed Case (HI-01), a member of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources and Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands which has jurisdiction over the country's 63 National Parks, today urged the public to submit comments to call for the protection of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and Haleakalā National Park.

"Throughout our Hawai'i, excessive unregulated commercial helicopter/small aircraft tour operations have heightened safety concerns in the air and on the ground and severely disrupted our communities and special places," said Case. "This has been especially true in our two treasured national parks, Hawai'i Volcanoes and Haleakalā, with pre-COVID overflights of 16,500 per year for Hawai'i Volcanoes and 5,000 per year for Haleakalā, some of the very highest in the entire National Park System.

"These flights disrupt communities on the way to and from the parks, destroy the serenity of these natural treasures, have significant impacts on the natural environment and soundscape, inhibit perpetuation of cultural connections to our landscapes, impede the preservation of endemic Hawaiian ecosystems and diminish visitors' abilities to learn about and enjoy the parks' resources."

Case continued: "In 2000, Congress passed the National Parks Air Tour Management Act to require the National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to work together to set up specific air tour management plans (ATMP) for each national park, but the agencies, especially the FAA, dragged their feet for over a decade. It took a lawsuit from a Hawai'i community group for the federal courts to order FAA and NPS to implement either ATMPs or voluntary agreements for the most heavily-impacted parks including Hawaii's.

"The NPS is now proceeding with development of ATMPs for Hawai'i Volcanoes and Haleakalā and is requesting public comment on alternatives: (1) no action/status quo/historic levels; (2) maximum protection/no air tours under 5,000 feet above ground within a half mile of the parks; (3) specific routes through the parks with caps on total flight per day and annually; and (4) (for Hawai'i Volcanoes) more limited routes with caps. The Honolulu Civil Beat article here summarizes the process."

"I will be submitting comments urging maximum protection for both of our parks," said Case.
"I will be saying basically that no company or person has the right to destroy our national parks for any reason, including tourism, that we have many other opportunities for different people of different abilities to enjoy our national parks, and that air tours are fundamentally inconsistent with the reasons for which we established our national parks to start with."

Source