Union for Airborne TV, Radio Reporters Seeks Safety Rules

The union representing airborne radio and TV reporters is seeking new workplace rules that would allow them to reject airborne assignments without punishment if they are worried about their safety.

Reporters, camera technicians and pilots will announce their demands at a news conference today, when they will ask all station owners and aircraft charter companies to adopt new standards for airborne reporting.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists says veto power over assignments is necessary to counter two forces: competitive pressure by station management, and aircraft charter companies that don’t want to lose any work.

Gerry Daley, broadcast department director for AFTRA, could not cite a specific case where a broadcast station had insisted that a worker fly. But he said the union wants to establish an industry standard because airborne assignments “have become a larger part of news reporting in the city of Los Angeles.”

Leslie Simon, AFTRA director of broadcast organizing, said the proposal follows two accidents in the past year. The most recent was a March 26 helicopter crash at Van Nuys Airport that seriously injured cameraman Phil Arno and pilot Kris Kelley. The aircraft had been hired by KTTV-TV Channel 11 to cover the Academy Awards.

The crew was flying in a chopper leased from Helinet. Just two weeks before the crash, AFTRA sent a letter to Fox Group, the KTTV parent, voicing concern about Helinet’s safety record. But a KTTV spokesman said an audit by an independent aviation safety firm found no problems with maintenance or operations of the company’s aircraft.

Helinet officials defended the safety of their aircraft. A preliminary investigation blamed the crash on the hydraulic system, but the National Transportation Safety Board has not issued a final report.

A year ago, a small plane carrying traffic reporter Meghan Reyes and her pilot caught fire, forcing them to make an emergency landing at El Monte Airport.

Daley said the incidents “put a spotlight” on the hazards faced by airborne news crews. “We are hoping to use the public interest and concern over these accidents to put pressure on these companies to agree” to basic standards, he said.

He said the 11 a.m. news conference at Van Nuys Airport will call for the cooperation of a dozen news and traffic reporting companies as well as aircraft contractors in agreeing to and adopting uniform standards.

Among those standards are rules allowing employee discretion over when to fly without fear of retaliation or loss of pay, as well as uniform insurance coverage. Also being considered are such additional safety measures as on-board fire extinguishers and a limit on the number of passengers equal to the number of escape doors from an aircraft.

Aircraft operators say many of the requests are governed by Federal Aviation Administration rules.

“The bottom line is that we do what we feel is safe within the guidelines that are established,” said Dave Corsello, vice president of Helinet.

Corsello said long-established rules always give an aircraft pilot the final say on whether conditions are suitable for flying. “We never, ever, ever pressure pilots to flying conditions that are not safe,” Corsello said. “If they feel uncomfortable, then we will support them 100%.”

He said the same prerogatives are extended to reporters and other crew members, except that they do not have the authority to overrule a pilot’s decision to stay grounded.