SERVING THE 

VILLAGES OF: 

BREVIG MISSION 

COUNOL 

DIOMEDE 

EL!M 

GAMBELL 

GOLOVIN 

KING ISLAND 

KOYUK 

MARY'S IGLOO 

NOME 

SAVOONGA 

SHAKTOOUK 

SHISHMAREF 

SOLOMON 

STEBBINS 

ST. MICHAEL 

'TELLER 

UNAI.AKI.EET 

WALES 

WHITE MOUNTAIN 

~ ~ b.. ,e,.. J!!:J. J!!:,.. ~ & TEL: (907) 443-5231 • FAX: (907) 443-4452 

Sent Electronically and Via Certified Mail 

Aprill4, 2015 

Albert Muldoon 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

United States Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 · 

Re: Native Village of Diomede and Kawerak, Inc.'s Comments to Erickson 

HeUcopters, Inc.'s Proposal in Response to US DOT's Order Requesting 

Proposals for providing HeUcopter Air Service to Diomede, Alaska, Docket 

DOT -OST -2009-0260 

Dear Mr. Muldoon: 

The Native Village of Diomede (Diomede) and Kawerak, Inc. (Kawerak) hereby 

jointly provide comments to the above referenced proposal from Erickson 

Helicopters, Inc.'s (Erickson) proposal dated April 11, 2015 to provide helicopter 

services to Diomede (the Proposal) through the United States Department of 

Transportation's (US DOT) Air Transportation to Non-eligible Places (ATNEP) 

program. 

Diomede and Kawerak are grateful that Erickson has again this year chosen to 

respond to the US DOT RFP and offer to provide helicopter services to Diomede, 

and, should Erickson be selected, look forward to working with Erickson in 

partnership over the next year. The Proposal is acceptable to Diomede and Kawerak 

generally, with a few areas that require some clarification between the parties: 

• The Proposal contemplates 24 regular scheduled flights to Diomede, to occur every 

other week throughout the year long contract period (Regular Flights), and an 

additional12 flights to be used by Diomede at its discretion (Additional Flights). Our 

understanding of the intent of the Proposal is that if for any reason Erickson is not 

able to fly during a Regular Flight, that Regular Flight will be rescheduled and made 

up by Erickson at the first available opportunity still as one of the 24 Regular Flights. 

A make-up of a Regular Scheduled flight will not be counted against one of the 12 

Additional Flights Diomede has to use at its discretion. 

• The Proposal provides for "two scheduled trips monthly (24 trips) .... " It appears to 

us that this means Erickson will be flying all twelve months (twice monthly), 

regardless of whether there is an ice runway for some period during the term of the 
Page 2 

contract. A table provided at the end of the Proposal, however, lists the "Weeks of 

Service per Year" as "44" which might be confused as meaning that for a two month 

period during the year no services are provided. We assume this is probably a clerical 

error and that the "Weeks of Service per Year--44" is no longer accurate and should 

instead state "Months of Service per Year- 12" in accordance with the narrative of 

the Proposal. 

• The Proposal refers to "the Customer" having discretion to choose when to use the 

12 Additional Flights. We assume "the Customer" is Diomede. 

• Though there was encouraging information in the Proposal regarding the aircraft 

being used and the approach being taken to address maintenance downtime, we 

would like clarification that the intent of Erickson during the contract period will be 

to make every attempt not to schedule routine maintenance of aircraft used to service 

Diomede, during times in which Regular Flights are scheduled fo r Diomede. 

• The Proposal references 48 hours' notice to adjust the schedule to "meet emergent 

requirements or account for severe weather." We assume that, as has been the 

practice in prior years, with respect to weather, Erickson will be monitoring weather 

and will make decisions about canceling and rescheduling flights as necessary, and 

will not need 48 hours' notice from Kawerak or Diomede to reschedule a flight 

cancelled due to weather when a window appears with the weather and they have an 

opportunity to make the flight into Diomede. 

It is our hope that Erickson concurs with these clarifications regarding their Proposal 

and, if so, we look forward to working with this outstanding Air Carrier again this 

next year. 

Sincerely, 

Robert Soolook, resrdent 

Native Village of Diomede 

CC: Dennis DeVany, US DOT 

Kevin Schlemmer, US DOT