Presentation
Tourism from Above, Risk from Within: A Near-Miss Analysis of Commercial Air Tour Operations
SessionThursday Poster Session
DescriptionCommercial helicopter air tours operate in dense, low-altitude environments where scenic routing, passenger expectations, terrain constraints, and repeated landmark-based flight paths create distinct safety challenges. This study analyzes near-miss events in helicopter sightseeing operations using reports from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. An initial ASRS query covering January 2000 to February 2026 identified 1,548 candidate helicopter reports under FAR Part 91 or Part 135; applying “air tour” or “sightseeing” narrative criteria produced a subset of 22 reports. Structured ASRS fields and narrative content were coded for anomaly type, flight phase, human factors issues, operational context, and reported proximity data. Results showed that airborne conflicts and near-midair collision events dominated the dataset, often occurring in daylight visual meteorological conditions. Miss distances were frequently reported within tens of feet, especially near scenic chokepoints, route merge areas, and high-traffic landmarks. Situation awareness limitations, distraction, visual scanning demands, and divided attention emerged as recurring human factors themes, suggesting that risk is driven less by isolated pilot error than by systemic operational pressures. The findings highlight helicopter air tours as a distinct HF domain and support proactive safety interventions involving route design, traffic awareness technologies, UAS integration, and procedures tailored to aerial tourism environments.
Event Type
Poster
TimeThursday, October 22nd5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT
Location