It is not often that I feel to take issue with Nick Lappos, however, on this occasion I would ask Nick to review fully what has been asked and what he has stated.
The original posting made the following referral to insurance.
..”I imagine it would mean no insurance if an accident were to happen during one of those flights.”
A close friend of mine was severely injured whilst as a passenger in a helicopter accident. Without elaborating the extent of his injuries, he is not able to speak, will always need to be hand-fed, will always be confined to a wheelchair and requires constant extensive nursing. Because the operator and pilot of the helicopter were not properly authorised or licensed for the type of operation they carried out, their insurance was invalid. To make matters worse, the personal life insurance of this friend had small print exclusion clause that invalidating their commitment as it was not a proper licensed operator. The only course of action left was to personally sue the operator and pilot. When this legal net was closing in on this the operator, they went into voluntary liquidation. Only to re-emerge some few months later with a company name change and slight change in director structure. They are not now able to be financially pursued. My friend had chartered this helicopter believing that it was properly licensed and authorised for this. Externally, this operator had given all the impressions of a proper charter operator. From being a successful business man this friend and his family are now struggling to say the very least.
Nick, in your reply postings you stated:
“..I really do not understand the infraction at issue. If someone is doing something stupid, or unsafe, then have at it.”
“.. Are they unsafe? Is it a public endangerment?”
Putting to one side the question of safety, I would say that it is definitely a public endangerment.
I am sure that if Nick had a close friend that had gone through all this, his views might somewhat be altered.
To any ‘invalidated cowboy operators or pilots’ out there, I simply ask you to consider if you could have something like this on your conscience for the rest of your life.
If only these ‘cowboy’ operators would put the same effort into becoming properly authorised as they do in deceiving the general public our industry would be a lot better.
T.G.