Federal Aviation Administration flight rules that have exclusively governed Hawai'i air tour operations for the past decade are being extended to the rest of the nation because they proved effective at reducing accident rates, the FAA announced yesterday.

However, the president of a local tour company said yesterday the FAA continues to impose a 1,500-foot height requirement and other, tighter restrictions on Hawai'i air tour companies that are imposed on operators in other states, and said he may go to court to challenge the regulations.

Ian Gregor, spokesman for the FAA, said the Special Federal Air Regulation 71 was put into effect in Hawai'i in 1996 because the agency was concerned about the high number of air tour accidents here.

Since then, Gregor said, the accident rate has declined by about 50 percent in Hawai'i, and "we wanted to extend it for the rest of the country, basically to increase safety."

Gregor said he does not believe that the new national regulations released yesterday will change anything for Hawai'i operators.

The new national regulation requires that tour helicopter passengers wear flotation vests for flights over water, and that helicopters used for over-water routes be equipped with floats to allow for safe ditching in an emergency.

The new rule also requires that passengers be briefed on water ditching procedures, use of flotation vests and ways of exiting the aircraft in an emergency. The national rules also impose new reporting requirements for tour operators so the FAA can develop a data base on the operators and the flights.

Those rules were put in place in Hawai'i "more than a decade ago because we were concerned about the number of accidents there, and we saw what a benefit it had in Hawai'i, and decided to expand it nationwide," Gregor said.

However, some key provisions that were included in Special Federal Air Regulation 71 will not be extended to the rest of the nation, including a requirement that air tours here must remain above 1,500 feet for all parts of the state.

Preston Myers, president of Safari Aviation, said he sued to challenge the Hawai'i regulation including the altitude requirement, arguing it was unfair and illegal for Hawai'i operators to face tighter controls than operators elsewhere in the nation.

Myers said his suit was dismissed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals about four or five years ago after the FAA pledged to either extend the Hawai'i restrictions to the rest of the nation, or to relax the Hawai'i restrictions to make them comparable to those that apply in other states.

The new regulations announced yesterday did neither, since Hawai'i is still subject to the 1,500-foot limit and other restrictions that don't apply elsewhere, Myers said. He said he is reviewing the issue with his lawyer to decide whether to return to court.

"We want to be on an equitable playing field," he said. "There are sheer cliffs all over Alaska, there are all kinds of places on the Mainland where they have just as much issues with weather and mountainous terrain and cliffs as we have here, so why is the regulation not applicable every place else?"

Myers said the FAA now allows "deviations" from the 1,500-foot limit at certain designated spots that are popular for tour aircraft, such as Kaua'i's Waimea Canyon and Hanapepe Valley, and those authorized deviations have allowed the air tour industry to survive. "At 1,500 feet, we'd all go broke," Myers said.

However, Myers said the regulations still hurt his company, and drove other tour companies out of business.

"We as operators always felt it was a noise issue and an environmental issue, and had nothing to do with safety," he said of the Hawai'i height limit and other parts of the regulations.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.