The residents of Hawaii were fed up of the noisy tour helicopters depriving them of their quality of life. The organisation that represents the federal workers and the Hawaii residents have sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to force them to do something regarding their requests.
This out of the ordinary lawsuit’s request is to draw up a tour plan or an agreement to limit the time of tours that go to the lava sights in Hawaii. Locals that live close to the lava attractions have to wake up and go sleep with the noise of helicopters, which is enough to make anyone furious. No one deserves to go through this before they’ve had their morning coffee.
The National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000 states that the FAA has to compile a voluntary agreement or tour plan whenever they wish to fly over the park (except if they have less than 50 flights per year), but since the Act was passed these agreements were never made and all the tour helicopters have been flying over Hawaii, as they please.
If it’s not enough that they disrupt the locals, these flights disrupt the lives of the wildlife as well, especially the nesting areas, which makes some mama bears not so happy. Hawaii is a country that believes strongly in their ceremonies and when those get disrupted with noisy helicopters you can only imagine how the locals start huffing down the necks of the authorities.
The tour operators refuse to give a statement on what is going to happen as yet, but they are not slowing down the flights, in fact, it is getting more frequent over time, which is not looking good for the lawsuit.
The locals feel that there has to be a balance and some areas need to be silent, such as the large chunk of interior public land, this silence will be impossible if there are hundreds of flights conducted per day. Let’s face it; everyone needs a little peace and quiet to stay sane.
The director of PEER feels that this lawsuit can be a blueprint for the rest of the parks to use, as there are 26 parks in the area that have more than 50 helicopter flights a year and it is only increasing.
