Opinion ID: 3036693
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: americopters and the kanae letter

Text: Until June 2002, Americopters ran a helicopter tour business from a rooftop helipad at a restaurant, Chuck’s Steak House (“Chuck’s”), in Guam. In February 2002, Clarence Kanae, Principal Operations Inspector for the FAA’s regional flight standards office, inspected the helipad at Chuck’s. According to Americopters, during that visit, Kanae verbally identified a number of deficiencies of the helipad but never documented these concerns. Americopters asked Kanae to “clarify and confirm . . . all of the changes that you would like us to make to . . . Chuck’s” and provided him a list of improvements Americopters intended to make. Americopters received no response from Kanae until four months later on June 24, 2002 (“Kanae Letter”): This letter is to inform you that the use of the roof top as a helicopter-pad, at Chuck’s Steak House, is considered unsafe, and does not meet the [FAA] Advisory Circular 150-5390-2A Heliport Design requirements. This AC is [a]dvisory in nature; however, this office feels that [14 C.F.R. § 91.13] will apply to this operation if the AC is not followed. Therefore, this office is requiring that your company immediately cease use of the Chuck’s Steak House rooftop for all flight operations. AMERICOPTERS v. FAA 2931 Americopters wrote to Kanae’s manager protesting that it had written Kanae in February 2002 and “agree[d] 100% to each and every change . . . requested,” but that Kanae failed to respond and, instead, summarily banned Americopters from flying from Chuck’s rooftop. On August 13, 2002, Americopters wrote to the FAA alleging that the Kanae Letter ordered it to cease operations without prior notice in violation of 14 C.F.R. § 13.20(b). Americopters requested rescission of the cease operations order, confirmation that planned improvements to the helipad at Chuck’s would comply with FAA regulations, and 90 days to install improvements approved by the FAA. In the alternative, Americopters requested a hearing under § 13.20(c).