It seems like my letter in the newspaper provoked some response from the helicopter industry. Today’s newspaper has two letters on the subject, one from Safari Helicopters justifying their lawsuit against the safety measures, and another from a pilot who says I don’t know what I’m talking about and calls me names. I will refrain from commenting here until the discussion in the newspaper dies out.
Also, I updated my previous post on this subject with a link to my copy of Jack Harter’s old website.
Congratulations! It’s encouraging to see you got not one but two responses.
In the letter from Preston Myers, I read, first that, ‘We knew that it was a “noise” issue and not a safety issue.’ Then, “The total fatalities on Kaua’i prior to SFAR 71 were four for the previous 15 years. The total fatalities on Kaua’i post SFAR 71 have been 14 in only 11 years.” So that looks like an interesting point.
What was the growth in the industry over the two periods? Is 14/11*(total person flight hours for the post period) really less than 4/15*(total person flight hours for the pre period)?
What percentage of the 14 turned out to happen when pilots were not respecting the regulations?
I love your website. It has a lot of great pictures and is very informative.