STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1741

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.C.R. No. 81

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 81, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AND HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO TAKE EVERY ACTION NECESSARY TO ADDRESS RAPIDLY INCREASING SAFETY RISKS AND COMMUNITY DISRUPTION RESULTING FROM INSUFFICIENT REGULATION OF RAPIDLY INCREASING OPERATIONS OF TOUR HELICOPTERS AND SMALL AIRCRAFT THROUGHOUT HAWAII SKIES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the appropriate authorities to take every action necessary to address the safety risks and community disruption from tour helicopter and small aircraft operations.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation.

 

     Your Committee finds that tour helicopter and small aircraft operations constitute a significant risk to passengers and residents on the ground.  Over the past five years tour helicopters and small aircraft operations in Hawaii accounted for nearly seventeen percent of the nation-wide accidents that prompted investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board.  In one ten-month period spanning 2019 to 2020, twenty-three lives were lost in four separate tour helicopter or small aircraft accidents on Oahu and Kauai.  Therefore, it is imperative that the United States Congress, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Hawaii Department of Transportation take every action necessary to address the safety risks from insufficient regulation of tour helicopters and small aircraft operations.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 81, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 81, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

 

 

 

________________________________

CHRIS LEE, Chair