SR 150 Hawaii Senate · 2025 Regular Session

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO SHARE INFORMATION ON THE SAFETY AND PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL TOUR OPERATORS TO HELP RESIDENTS AND VISITORS MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS.

This Senate Resolution (SR 150) requests Hawaii's Department of Transportation to collect and share annual safety information from commercial helicopter tour operators. It specifically asks operators to report whether their helicopters have four key safety features: crash-resistant fuel systems, flotation devices for water landings, terrain awareness systems, and automatic flight tracking technology. The goal is to provide residents and visitors with transparent safety data to make informed decisions about tour operators. The resolution does not mandate safety upgrades but seeks to increase public access to existing safety information to promote safer tourism choices.

Issues: ✓ Transportation

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Apr 2025

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 7, 2025 Last action Apr 3, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SR150 → SR150_SD1 · 10 edits

MAJOR

The bill was converted from a Senate Resolution (SR) to a Senate Bill (SB) format, significantly expanding its scope from requesting an annual safety report to mandating a comprehensive safety scoring and transparency system. The new version requires the Department of Transportation to solicit detailed safety data from operators, develop a scoring system with letter grades, identify the 'safest' operator annually, and share this information with the public and tourism authorities. This represents a major policy shift from passive information collection to active safety rating and public disclosure.

Scope change

Expanded from a simple annual report request to a comprehensive safety rating and public disclosure system with specific requirements for scoring, grading, and public accessibility.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirement to develop a scoring system and assign letter grades to commercial air tour operators based on safety criteria

Added requirement to identify and categorize the 'Safest Commercial Air Tour Operator' annually

Added requirement to share safety information with Hawaii Tourism Authority for public distribution

Added requirement to report on legitimate complaints about safety, noise, or operations received by the Department

Added requirement to report on safety-related incidents experienced by operators over the preceding 24 months

Added requirement to collaborate with NTSB to develop additional safety criteria

Changed from requesting operators to publicly post information at every location to requesting the Department to solicit information from operators and create a centralized scoring system

Removed requirement for operators to publicly post safety information at their business locations

Added requirement to report on insurance coverage amounts for personal injury and loss for each customer

Added requirement to report on minimum pilot hours required to fly commercial passengers

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate. No roll call record of that vote is available.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 3, 2025

Senate · Passed

Report and Resolution Adopted, as amended (SD 1).

Apr 2, 2025

Senate · Reported by committee

Reported from TCA (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1615) with recommendation of adoption, as amended (SD 1).

Apr 1, 2025

Senate · Reported by committee

The committee(s) on TCA recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in TCA were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Lee, C., Inouye, Elefante, Kanuha, DeCorte; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.

Mar 21, 2025

Senate · Reported by committee

The committee(s) on TCA has scheduled a public hearing on 03-25-25 3:20PM; Conference Room 224 & Videoconference.

Mar 12, 2025

Senate · Referred to committee

Referred to TCA.

Mar 7, 2025

Senate · Introduced

Offered.

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors