Air tour operators hope Bush frees the skies over Grand Canyon

Ken Ritter

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 4:59 a.m.

Air tour operators hoping for more freedom in the skies over the Grand Canyon got some wind beneath their wings Thursday when the Federal Aviation Administration let pass a deadline for strict new flight rules to limit noise over the national park.

Given a new date of March 22, air tour operators are hoping President-elect George W. Bush will ease, instead of tighten, restrictions on sightseeing flights over the Grand Canyon.

"There is no question in our mind that the Bush Administration will take a more balanced view of air touring over the Grand Canyon and throughout the United States," said Steve Bassett, president of the United States Air Tour Association.

Bassett said his trade and lobbying group provided "very, very aggressive support" for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

"We were never going to get a fair trial under the Clinton administration," he said.

A Wilderness Society official said Thursday that a coalition of environmental groups, including the Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club, intend to keep fighting for quiet-Canyon provisions won during the Clinton administration.

The effort has an ally in Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican who has pushed for limiting aircraft noise over the Canyon. McCain has long sought a goal of returning "natural quiet" to the canyon.

Rose Fennell, Wilderness Society national parks program director, said that in the summer, visitors to the canyon's South Rim can expect a helicopter or airplane to pass overhead every 17 seconds.

"The issue is who controls the Grand Canyon - specialized economic interests or the American people," Fennell said.

Air tour operators "make a lot of money shuttling people in and out of the Canyon," she said. "The Grand Canyon is a public trust."

Seven Las Vegas-area companies provide air tours of the Grand Canyon, 170 miles to the east.

Safety over the Grand Canyon became a key issue after a helicopter and tour plane collided in June 1986, killing 25 people.

Bassett said special FAA flight regulations were adopted after the crash, and 800,000 people a year now safely view the Grand Canyon from the air.

But he said tour operators are fought at every turn by "extremists in the environmental community seeking to put us out of business."

Bassett said restrictions tightened under the Clinton administration until the Columbia, Md.-based air tour association filed suit to block them in April in U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

That led the FAA to push back the dates for implementation - first to Dec. 1 and then to Thursday.

Both times, the postponements came after the professional organization raised safety issues, said Jerry Snyder, an FAA spokesman in Los Angeles.

Fennell on Thursday blamed the air tour operators for stalling.

She said new routes were developed during two years of discussions and accused air tour operators of touting safety but balking at devoting time to learning new routes when the off-peak season began.

"If they were that concerned about safety, they would have shut down (tourist) overflights in November and learned the new routes," the Wilderness Society official said.