Ketchikan Air Tour Safety Still Lacking, NTSB Finds

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently added three more recommendations to those already issued surrounding air tour safety in Ketchikan, Alaska. The latest recommendations, included in a short report, call for a special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) to be developed for Ketchikan air tour flights, the imposition of weather minimums more conservative than Part 135, and a pilot training requirement focused on reducing continued VFR into IMC. In that report, the Safety Board highlighted five fatal accidents in the region between 2007 and 2021 and found that despite FAA efforts over the past 15 years to motivate voluntary adoption of safety procedures, tour flights were still 'vulnerable to the hazards unique to the area's terrain and weather conditions.