Whenever there’s a high-profile helicopter crash—such as the tragic accident in 2020 that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant along with eight others in Southern California, and a more recent incident earlier this year in which six people traveling from Palm Springs to Las Vegas died—it raises questions anew over whether helicopter travel is safe.
That’s in part why specific helicopter safety improvements were included in a massive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorizing bill that President Biden signed into law on May 16. The measure strengthens FAA oversight of flight-seeing tours (a term used for sightseeing outings by air) and other commercial helicopter operations; it also calls for upgrades in safety equipment and data monitoring.
The most recent helicopter accident drew worldwide attention due to the prominence of those aboard: among them, the CEO of a leading Nigerian bank, Herbert Ogiwe, his wife and son, and the former head of the Nigerian stock exchange. The two pilots flying the Airbus EC 130 chopper, operated by California based Orbic Air, also perished.
Civilian choppers are a tourist staple in many destinations around the world, and despite the publicity that such accidents draw, safety experts say that helicopter transportation has a good safety record, better than that of small private planes.
But should you think twice before booking that flight-seeing ride over a waterfall or a copter trip to the airport?
“It’s safe enough so that when one of these events happens, it’s a major story,” says John Goglia, an aviation consultant and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about whether the crash was preventable, he added.
In the case of the Mojave crash in California earlier this year, it may be too early to tell: The NTSB has sifted through the evidence at the site, where the crash left a shallow crater and a debris trail in a wide stretch of desert scrub, but the investigation is ongoing. One stumbling block is that the copter did not have a voice or data recorder aboard, which also was the case in the Bryant crash. And another similarity has emerged between the two cases: foul weather played a role, and the pilots made the decision to take off in less than ideal conditions. The Mojave crash occurred at night with limited visibility, due in part to what was described as a “wintry mix” in the skies.
While travelers shouldn’t be afraid to fly in a helicopter, according to Goglia, he hastened to add that more can be done to make this sector of the aviation industry safer.
The NTSB in recent years has called for greater federal oversight of the helicopter tour industry following a spate of flight-seeing
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