The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing new procedures that aim to prevent Hawaii air tour operators from flying too low and into bad weather.

The procedures are being offered up following a series of fatal crashes over the years and criticism from both the National Transportation Safety Board and the public.

Current FAA regulations require air tour operators to fly at 1,500 feet unless they have permission to go lower.

The proposed procedures would require each air tour operator to develop safety plans to prove they are capable of obtaining authorization to safely descend below 1,500 feet.

The safety plan proposal includes recommendations for aircraft equipment, pilot training and qualifications.

The FAA is also encouraging Hawaii air tour operators to adopt comprehensive safety management systems while the agency works on a rule that would mandate the programs.

David Boulter, the FAA’s acting associate administrator for aviation safety, said in a news release Friday that the new proposal will help pilots avoid situations where they encounter poor visibility and become disoriented.

Following a deadly 2019 tour helicopter crash on Kauai that killed the pilot and six passengers, the NTSB accused regulators of lax oversight of air tours.

While determining the probable cause of the crash was the pilot’s decision to continue to fly under visual flight rules into a fog-shrouded mountainous region of Kauai, the NTSB said a contributing factor was the FAA’s delay in installing aviation weather cameras that might have alerted the pilot to the poor conditions. It also cited the FAA’s “lack of leadership” in the development of a weather training program for Hawaii air tour pilots and its ineffective monitoring and oversight of air tour operators’ weather- related practices.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called the crash “100% preventable.”

The NTSB also leveled criticism at the FAA after three people died in a 2019 tour helicopter crash in a Kailua neighborhood, and when 11 died in a skydiving plane crash at Dillingham Airfield that same year.

In the Kailua crash, the NTSB said in its probable cause report that the helicopter encountered a strong downdraft “while operating at a higher than recommended airspeed in turbulence,” which caused excessive main rotor flapping and an in-flight breakup when the main rotor contacted the cabin.

The probable cause of the skydiving flight crash, according to the NTSB, was the pilot’s “aggressive takeoff maneuver,” but the FAA came in for criticism for insufficient oversight of parachute jump operations and “lack of awareness that the pilot’s flight instructor was providing substandard training.​”

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, cautiously welcomed the FAA’s new effort.

“On first review, this seems to be a serious restart attempt by the FAA to address escalating air tour safety and community disruption concerns,” Case said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.

But he added that “it remains to be seen” if tour operators comply with the letter and the spirit of the initiative and whether the FAA will enforce it.

“But even if they do, the end solution is strict compliance with all safety requirements and strict regulation of time, place and other conditions of operation to mitigate disruption,” Case said.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the new proposal, planned to take effect next spring. The FAA said it will replace an outdated 15-year-old manual.