After hearing the complaints of air tour operators,
the Federal Aviation Administration recently delayed setting up new
flight-free zones over the Grand Canyon for another year. Critics
blasted the postponement, which came 10 months after President
Clinton ordered an immediate reduction of noise at the park.
The FAA is trying to shrug off the National
Parks Overflight Act, says Sierra Club spokesman Dick Hingson,
referring to the federal law that promised to restore “natural
quiet” to the park 10 years ago. Seven groups, including the Sierra
Club, are now filing suit to have that law
upheld.
Hingson likens the booming air-tour
business to “a feeding frenzy,” with some 15,000 people a month now
flying over the canyon (HCN,
8/19/96).
Helicopter-tour business owner Ron
Williams says the delay in restrictions was needed for pilots who
are using the old flight paths to train for the upcoming tourist
season. “We’re not averse to changing routes, but let’s do this
safely and logically,” he says.
Williams is also
critical of two other restrictions, scheduled to take effect May 1:
a dusk-through-dawn aircraft curfew and a cap on the number of
planes allowed in a commercial sight-seeing fleet. He says air-tour
operators plan their own lawsuit against the FAA regulations.
“Ten years ago, we flew anywhere and
everywhere,” said Williams. “The park belongs to the people and the
people would like to have this access.”
*
Danielle Desruisseaux
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Planes beat out quiet.
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