Ban on Air Traffic Proposed for 44% of Grand Canyon

The National Park Service on Wednesday proposed establishing flight-free zones above 44% of the Grand Canyon, restricting air tour operators to specific corridors over the least-used parts of the popular park in Arizona.

Under the new rules, pilots would have to stay at least 7,000 feet above the canyon rims in the restricted areas.

The Park Service recommendations were made to the Federal Aviation Administration in response to a law passed by Congress last summer. The law prohibited flights below the canyon rim and directed the Park Service and the FAA to designate safe flight routes over the park and regulate aircraft noise in an effort to preserve the park’s “natural quiet . . . solitude.”

60-Day Limit

The FAA has 60 days to adopt the recommendations, though it may modify them for safety reasons, Park Service spokesman Duncan Morrow said. There is widespread agreement that the final regulations will serve as a model for rules controlling flights over other national parks, including Yosemite.

Environmentalists and tour operators cautiously praised the plan Wednesday as a “good first step” toward resolving the controversy, but both sides warned that there may be more wrangling over the final regulations proposed by the FAA.

More than 400,000 visitors were flown over the Grand Canyon on 50,000 tour flights last year, according to Park Service estimates. Some of the most popular of these routes dipped below the rim of the mile-deep canyon, a flight path that would be prohibited under the new rules, Morrow said.

Ban Proposed in 1985

It was these below-rim flights that first triggered the controversy. Rangers, concerned about increasing noise levels in the canyon, proposed banning such flights in 1985. After a June, 1986, mid-air collision between a helicopter and a fixed-wing plane that killed 25 people, senior park officials stepped up efforts.

Operators of the popular air tours protested directly to Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, who scolded the park rangers for their attempt to limit canyon flights and turned the matter over to the FAA. Before the FAA could act, however, Congress passed legislation outlawing flights below the rims and ordered the Park Service and the FAA to come up with safe overflight routes and a solution for the noise problems.

“We think this (plan) is a good compromise for everybody concerned,” said National Parks Director William Penn Mott Jr.

“This is a good first step,” said Wilderness Society spokesman James Norton. “But we are concerned. . . . This means they will be concentrating the flights in a smaller area . . . and that could have an even worse (noise) impact. We plan to monitor the result.” Officials of the Sierra Club and the National Parks and Conservation Assn. echoed Norton’s statements.

‘No Problem With It’

Air tour operator Ron Warren, general manager of Grand Canyon Airlines, said Wednesday that he had not seen the final version of the park plan. “But if it’s what they’ve previously shown us, I have no problem with it. . . . The routes they propose are highly scenic.”

Echoing the concerns of other flight operators, Warren pointed out that the FAA still must check the proposals for safety because the air corridors--varying in width from two to nine miles--will restrict arrival and departure routes into and out of the Grand Canyon Airport. He also said the plan did not address how helicopters and the faster fixed-wing planes are to be kept separated.

Included in the flight-free zones are such places as Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, North Rim Village and Desert View and popular backcountry spots such as Mescalero Point, parts of the Powell Plateau and Toroweep.