“The Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service have about four months to start preparing a plan to manage aerial tours over Glacier National Park.A handful of businesses offer helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft flights over Glacier’s soaring stone fins and plunging valleys. In fiscal year 2018, Glacier had five authorized operators and a total of 298 reported tours.
These flights amounted to “an airborne reign of terror,” alleged Paula Dinerstein, general counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The park’s 1999 General Management Plan called for the phase-out of all commercial scenic air tours over Glacier.
A 2000 law, meanwhile, required the FAA and National Park Service to establish Air Tour Management Plans for National Parks when a company applied for aerial tours, or reach voluntary agreements concerning operations with those companies. The agencies failed to meet that obligation in most parks with tour operators, instead letting those companies operate on an interim basis, according to court documents.”
