From Aviation Investigation Report AIR-22-05 “Collision into Terrain Safari Aviation Inc. Airbus AS350 B2, N985SA Kekaha, Hawaii, December 26, 2019” published on May 26, 2022: 2.4.1 Need for Aviation Weather Cameras
At the time of the accident, Kauai had only two weather reporting stations capable of providing aviation routine weather reports (located at BKH and LIH on the west and southeast sides of the island, respectively), and weather radar coverage for the north half of the island was partially blocked by the high terrain. Further, although some tour pilots used imagery from three privately owned webcams during their preflight planning, these cameras were not aviation weather cameras, faced only a small portion of the tour route, and were not always operational.
As a result, tour pilots had no reliable, official weather observation sources to provide information about conditions along much of the tour route. A lack of weather information for pilots increases the difficulty of making appropriate weather-related decisions.
The NTSB has a longstanding interest in the safety benefits of aviation weather cameras that provide pilots and others with online access to real-time (or near-real-time) images, particularly in high-risk locations, such as mountain passes or other areas susceptible to adverse or rapidly changing weather conditions, like in Alaska in Hawaii.
In 1995 and 2008, we issued safety recommendations that led to the FAA’s development of a successful aviation weather camera program in Alaska (NTSB 1995 and 2008).44 According to the FAA, the development of this program coincided with and contributed to a 53% reduction in the weather-related accident rate in Alaska between 2008 and 2011.
In 2013, we noted that 13 accidents that occurred in Hawaii since 1997 (and resulted in 48 fatalities) involved aircraft that encountered IMC, other adverse weather phenomena, or both, while operating under VFR; seven of these accidents involved air tour flights (NTSB 2013b).46 That year, we recommended that the FAA do the following:
Initiate an aviation weather camera program in Hawaii that includes the installation and maintenance of aviation weather cameras at critical locations in Hawaii. Establish public access to these aviation weather cameras’ real-time imagery. (A-13-25)
In response to our recommendation, the FAA initiated a project to analyze the feasibility of installing weather cameras in Hawaii. In 2017, the FAA informed us that, although it had identified locations in Hawaii where weather cameras could be beneficial, due to estimated costs and fiscal limitations, it did not plan to install any cameras but would instead provide for the dissemination of imagery from existing, non-FAA-owned cameras located at airports throughout the state. We expressed our concerns to the FAA that such a plan did not address providing weather camera coverage for critical en route locations in Hawaii.
As a result, on October 24, 2017, we classified Safety Recommendation A-13-25 “Open—Unacceptable Response.”
In 2019, personnel from the FAA and NTSB met to discuss this recommendation and the possibility of identifying new FAA funding for weather camera installations. In 2020, the FAA informed us that it had been appropriated funding to expand its weather camera program and that it planned to install camera systems in Hawaii later that year; as a result, we classified Safety Recommendation A-13-27 “Open—Acceptable Response” on August 21, 2020. We note that, although no camera installations were completed before the date of this accident, the FAA has since made significant progress.
On May 4, 2022, the FAA informed us that it would implement weather camera facilities at 26 locations in Hawaii where weather-related aviation accidents and flight operational interruptions and deviations have occurred. The planned installations included six locations on Kauai that would show views along tour route segments, including the Napali Coast. In addition, the FAA planned to install noncertified weather sensors (known as visual weather observation systems, or VWOS) at some weather camera locations in Hawaii.
As of the date of this report, two locations on Kauai (and three on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii) had operational weather camera installations.
One installation on Kauai was on the southwest side of the island (Loleau) and the other was on the north (Powerline Trail). (See Figure 18 for the locations and directions of those weather cameras.)
The NTSB is encouraged that the FAA has made progress installing the Hawaii weather camera network and would like to see this program fully implemented as planned. We note that, in the 9 years since we issued these recommendations, at least 19 additional weather-related accidents (including this accident) have occurred in Hawaii.48
We note that, once the camera network is completed, it will enable pilots to directly access weather images before takeoff (using a computer or personal electronic device with internet access) to help enhance their awareness of adverse weather conditions that might affect the planned flight.
For example, had a network of weather cameras been available to the pilot involved in this accident, the images from those cameras (particularly if any had been installed at the Napali Coast) would have enabled him to see the adverse weather conditions that had moved in just before the accident flight departed. Such information would have enhanced his awareness of the extent and location of adverse weather and helped him decide how to best avoid it, such as by delaying, canceling, or diverting his tour.
Thus, the NTSB concludes that the FAA’s full implementation of a Hawaii weather camera system as planned will provide access to continuously updated weather imagery that will support pilots’ weather-avoidance decision-making and likely reduce weather-related air tour accidents in the state. Therefore, the NTSB reiterates Safety Recommendation A-13-25.
The NTSB has also long recognized that the imagery from such a camera system is important to pilots not only when viewing it directly but also when receiving weather information from ground support personnel, such as FAA and FAA-contracted flight service station specialists, who may refer to the imagery when providing verbal preflight and en route weather briefings to pilots.2.4.2 for more information about For example, although a pilot may directly check weather camera imagery before takeoff, conditions may change after the flight departs.
Pilots en route can contact ground support personnel, such as flight service stations specialists, via the radio and request specific weather camera information. (See section 2.4.2 for more information about infrastructure improvements needed in Hawaii to enable such en route flight support for low-flying aircraft operations, like air tours.) The flight service station specialists can access the requested camera imagery and then interpret and summarize the information for pilots, such as describing clouds as higher (or lower) than certain known elevations and visibilities higher (or lower) than known distance markers.
In 2013, we concluded that, once aviation weather cameras are operational in Hawaii, the weather information available from these images would benefit all pilots flying there, and we recommended that the FAA do the following:
Equip flight service station specialists responsible for Hawaii and the continental United States with the technical capabilities and training to provide verbal preflight and en route briefings using aviation weather camera imagery. (A-13-27)
On September 7, 2021, the FAA responded that it continues to evaluate the requirements necessary to equip the federal contract provider and its specialists responsible for these locations with the recommended capabilities and training.50 We note that the FAA aviation weather camera websit