BEFORE THE 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

:.. :_: f f.~. 

In the matter of the cancellation of the 

Air Taxi authority issued to: Docket DOT -OST -2012-0022 

VIH COUGAR HELICOPTERS, INC. 

MOTION OF VIH COUGAR HELICOPTERS, INC. 

TO WITHHOLD INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE 

Communications with respect to this document should be sent to: 

David M. Nadler 

David Y. Yang 

Andrew E. Smith 

DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO LLP 

1825 Eye Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20006 

Telephone: (202) 420-2200 

Facsimile: (202) 420-2201 

nadlerd@dicksteinshapiro. com 

yangd@dicksteinshapiro. com 

smitha@dicksteinshapiro.com 

Counsel to VIH Cougar Helicopters, Inc. 

Dated: December 18, 2012 
BEFORE THE 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

In the matter of the cancellation of the 

Air Taxi authority issued to: Docket DOT -OST -2012-0022 

VIH COUGAR HELICOPTERS, INC. 

MOTION OF VIH COUGAR HELICOPTERS, INC. 

TO WITHHOLD INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE 

Pursuant to Rule 12 of the Rules of Practice (14 C.P.R. § 302.12) for the Department of 

Transportation ("Department"), VIH Cougar Helicopters, Inc. ("VIH Cougar"), by and through 

the undersigned counsel, hereby moves to withhold from public disclosure unredacted versions 

ofthe documents set forth in Exhibit A (collectively, "the Documents"), which were provided to 

the Department in response to the Department's December 14, 2012 order in the above-captioned 

proceedings. 

I. BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT 

The Documents contain confidential commercial and personal information that is exempt 

from public disclosure pursuant to Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 

U.S.C. § 552, the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905, and all other applicable statutory and 

regulatory prohibitions against the public disclosure of sensitive, non-public information. 

Redacted, public versions of the Documents will be filed with the Department's Docketing 

Office for inclusion onto Docket No. DOT-OST-2012-0022 in the coming days. 

Exemption 4 ofFOIA protects all matters that are "trade secrets and commercial or 

financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential." 5 U.S.C. 
§ 552(b)(4). To fall within the purview ofExemption 4, information must be: (1) commercial or 

financial in nature; (2) obtained from a person or by the Government; and (3) confidential or 

privileged. See e.g., Watkins v. US. Bureau of Customs and Border, 643 F.3d 1189, 1194 (9th 

Cir. 2011); see also, Public Citizen Health Research Group, 704 F.2d at 1290 (D.C. Cir. 1983). 

In addition, the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905, prohibits Government personnel from 

disclosing confidential information unless disclosure would be allowed under FOIA Exemption 

4. See Canadian Commercial Corp. v. Dept. of Air Force, 514 F.3d 37, 39 (D.C. Cir. 2008) 

(citing CNA Fin. Corp. v. Donovan, 830 F.2d 1132, 1151 (D.C. Cir. 1987)). Notably, in seeking 

Exemption 4 protection, a person need not prove with certainty that it will suffer competitive 

harm by the release of its commercial or financial information. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. 

United States, 375 F.3d 1182, 1187 (D.C. Cir. 2004) (sufficient to trigger Exemption 4 protection 

where person shows that it is likely that competitive harm would result); see also General Elec. 

Co. v. Dep't of the Air Force, 648 F. Supp. 2d 95, 103-04 (D.D.C. 2009) (holding that a 

contractor is not required to show how exactly a competitor would use its information to gain a 

competitive advantage). 

Here, the Documents satisfy the Exemption 4 requirements. Specifically, the Documents 

are commercial or financial in nature, they are maintained confidentially, and they are not 

available to the general public. Indeed, VIH Cougar takes reasonable efforts to guard against 

unauthorized dissemination of the Documents, thereby protecting their commercial value. More 

specifically, the Documents contain confidential, commercial information regarding VIH 

Cougar's organization, operations, capabilities, strategic alliances, real estate, licenses, insurance 

policies, including the terms and conditions of those business arrangements. Accordingly, if the 

Documents were publicly disclosed, the information would allow competitors (such as Petroleum 

2 
Helicopters, Inc.) insights into sensitive subjects such as the number of aircraft that operated by 

the companies, the capabilities of those aircraft, the capabilities and services provided by the 

companies, the location of any bases and facilities, the names of the pilots who fly for the 

companies and the crews which service the aircraft, the vendors that support the companies and 

the types of services that they provide. All of this information would assist in determining where 

the companies operate and what they presently do, as well as in predicting the industries, sectors, 

and/or geographic locations or markets in which they may be likely to expand. Thus, all of this 

information would be useful to competitors in pursuing current or identifying prospective 

business opportunities. 

Under these circumstances, the public disclosure of the Exhibit A Documents in their 

umedacted forms would give competitors access to commercially sensitive and valuable 

information that they would not otherwise have but for these proceedings - and the information 

inequality would likely place VIH Cougar and these nonparties at an unfair competitive 

disadvantage in relation to these competitors when pursuing the same or similar business 

opportunities or formulating and/or executing strategic alliances and similar pursuits. 

Moreover, the Documents also contain certain personal information related to employees. 

This sensitive, personal information is also confidential and its release would violate company 

policies for safeguarding the privacy interests of employees. 

Finally, because the impetus behind the Department's Rule 12 procedures is to ensure 

that a company's confidential commercial and personal information is protected to the maximum 

practicable while also ensuring that the public has adequate access to the relevant facts, it is 

appropriate to consider whether disclosure of the Documents would be central to understanding 

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the proceedings underlying this case, particularly since confidential information is also involved. 

VIH Cougar contends that it is not. 

The redactions that VIH Cougar will file on the public docket in the coming days will 

provide all of this information necessary and, thus, properly addresses the Department's stated 

concerns while maintaining under seal confidential information that the public does not need to 

see, in an effort to promote the regulatory and statutory rights ofVIH Cougar and its employees 

to have their personal and business-sensitive information protected to the fullest extent of the 

law. See Zenith Radio Corp. v. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., 5298 F. Supp. 866, 0907-08 (E.D. 

Pa. 1981) (finding that public's presumption of access to commercial information designated as 

confidential was weak, where public's general interest in the underlying litigation was satisfied 

by court's unsealing of other documents and the protected information was commercially 

sensitive). 

II. CONCLUSION 

For the foregoing reasons, the Department should grant VIH Cougar's motion and not 

disclose the umedacted Documents in Exhibit A that have been provided to the Department in 

response to the Department's December 14, 2012 order. 

Dated: December 18, 2012 Respectfully submitted, 

By: 

4 

DAufd M~ David M. Nadler 

David Y. Yang 

Andrew E. Smith 

DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO LLP 

1825 Eye Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20006 

Telephone: (202) 420-2200 

Facsimile: (202) 420-2201 

nadlerd@dicksteinshapiro. com 
5 

yangd@dicksteinshapiro. com 

smi tha@dicksteinshapiro. com 

Counsel to VIH Cougar Helicopters, Inc. 
EXHIBIT A 

INDEX OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 

AND DOCUMENTS TO BE WITHHELD FROM THE PUBLIC: 

CONFIDENTIAL ITEM# TITLE/DESCRIPTION 

1. The documents contained within the file named "Articles of 

Incorporation," which is being filed as Tab A in response to the 

Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

2. The documents contained within the file named "DOT-FAA 

Certificates," which is being filed as Tab Bin response to the 

Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

3. The documents contained within the file named "Company 

Benefit Plan," which is being filed as Tab C in response to the 

Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

4. The documents contained within the file named "Company 

Employee List," which is being filed as Tab D in response to 

the Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

5. The documents contained within the file named "Financial 

Statements and Documents," which is being filed as Tab E in 

response to the Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

6. The documents contained within the file named "Helicopter 

Leases," which is being filed as Tab Fin response to the 

Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

7. The documents contained within the file named "Insurance 

Policies and Related Documents," which is being filed as Tab G 

in response to the Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

8. The documents contained within the file named "HSBC Bank 

USA, NA Line of Credit Agreement," which is being filed as 

Tab H in response to the Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

9. The documents contained within the file named "Material 

Contracts and Agreements," which is being filed as Tab I in 

response to the Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

10. The documents contained within the file named "Real Estate 

Leases," which is being filed as Tab J in response to the 

Department's Dec. 14, 2012 order. 

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I certify that I have on this 18th day of December 2012 served the foregoing upon the 

persons listed below: 

Susan L. Kurland 

Office of the Assistant Secretary for 

Aviation and International Affairs 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Room W96-495 

Washington, DC 20590 

Lauralyn Remo 

Office of the Assistant Secretary for 

Aviation and International Affairs 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Room W96-495 

Washington, DC 20590 

Jonathan Blank 

John Longstreth 

Timothy Hobbs 

K&L Gates LLP 

160 1 K Street NW 

Washington, DC 20006-1600 

Peter Lynch, AGC-300 

Asst. Chief Counsel for Enforcement 

Federal Aviation Administration 

800 Independence Ave. SW 

Washington, DC 20591 

William J. Weber 

Certification Section Manager 

FAA AFS-900 

45005 Aviation Drive Suite 131 

Dulles, VA 20166 

Roy Hardie 

Aviation Safety Inspector 

Federal Aviation Administration 

1601 Lind Avenue SW, Suite 260 

Renton, W A 98057 

Andrew E. Smith 

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