TOPS aiming for stronger safety culture across air tour sector

Under this portion of the program, TOPS will give these part 91 operators 24 months before they will be officially audited. In the first year, the part 91 operators will have a mentor (an existing TOPS member) that they can turn to during the process of writing their own operations manual. At the end of the first year, Rose said an auditor will look at each operator and their manual, and perform a gap analysis that compares what is written in the manual to what the operator is executing.

He added: “The second year is where you get things going and start practicing what you preach. So at the end of the second year [the part 91 operator] would be audited to their own manual. And no two of those manuals will be exactly the same, but it still gives them a reference [and] a way of implementing safety practices that we consider basic.

“And the goal here … is this is a culture change. And culture doesn’t change overnight, it changes over generations. Each pilot that comes in [to a company] changes the culture. So we should start influencing a pilot’s strong safety culture from their first day in flight school.”

Rose believes that for consumers, when it comes to choosing a reputable helicopter company for an air tour, “the TOPS membership is a guarantee that [air tour] operators are doing things the right way; they’re taking the extra step and doing things as safely as possible.”