On Sunday (April 13), Jason Costello, director of operations for New York Helicopter Charter, agreed by email to voluntarily suspend operations at a request from the FAA. Within 16 minutes, Michael Roth, CEO of NY Helicopter notified the FAA that the agreement to suspend operations had been reversed and Costello was no longer an employee.
The FAA’s telephone request to Costello on Sunday followed last Thursday’s fatal accident involving one of the operator’s Bell 206L LongRangers. All six on board were killed. The agency has launched a Certificate Holder Evaluation Program (CHEP) review, and, on the phone call, asked Costello for a voluntary interruption in operations while the review was in progress
Roth’s response prompted FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau to issue an Emergency Order of Suspension of New York Helicopter’s Part 135 air-carrier certificate yesterday (April 14), “effective immediately.” As part of its official Determination of Emergency, the FAA wrote, “The immediate firing of the Director of Operations raises serious safety concerns because it appears Mr. Roth retaliated against Mr. Costello for making the safety decision to cease operations during the investigations. [and as a result] NY Helicopter does not have a qualified person serving in the position of Director of Operations.”
The FAA announcement of the Emergency Order asserted that “NY Helicopter violated 14 C.F.R. § 119.69(a)(1), which states the following: ‘Each certificate holder must have sufficient qualified management and technical personnel to ensure the safety of its operations. Except for a certificate holder using only one pilot in its operations, the certificate holder must have qualified personnel serving in the following or equivalent positions: [including] Director of Operations.’”
