The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking a $50,000 civil penalty against Tora Flight Adventures for allegedly operating air tours without proper certification.

Tora Flight Adventures, which also used the name Tora Flight Adventure Club, Rainbow Connection and Hawaii Sky Tours, transported tourists in small airplanes from Honolulu to Panda Ranch on Moloka'i's West End for a day trip that included sightseeing, swimming at a secluded beach and dinner.

The FAA had been investigating complaints about the operation since 2003. On April 25, 2006, the agency sent a letter telling the company to cease operations because it didn't have a "Part 135" air taxi and commuter certificate.

Five days later, on April 30, 2006, one of Tora's small planes crashed after takeoff from its private airstrip on Moloka'i, injuring four Japanese tourists.

Last month, on April 6, the FAA issued a notice of proposed civil penalty to Tora Flight Adventures alleging the company ran air tours from 2003 to April 2006 that required Part 135 certification.

The company can appeal the proposed fine. Company owner John Weiser, former owner of KUMU radio, could not be reached for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether Tora Flight Adventures is still operating, although Ian Gregor, spokesman for the FAA's Western-Pacific Region, said: "To our knowledge, Tora has stopped operating as a Part 135."

Some air tours in Hawai'i operate under Part 91 general aviation certification, but they are restricted to a 25-mile range and must depart and land from the same point, with no stops in between. The distance between Honolulu Airport and Moloka'i is greater than 25 miles, and the Panda Ranch flights included a stop, which should have prevented the company from operating air tours without Part 135 certification, the FAA said.

The 2006 crash occurred moments after the company's Partenavia P68 took off in darkness from a grass airstrip about 14 miles northwest of Kaunakakai. The pilot failed to maintain a proper climb rate and the airplane hit the ground 2,300 feet from the north end of the 2,000-foot airstrip, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report on the probable cause of the crash released April 25.

The pilot, who was not named, told investigators he had only 10 hours of night flying experience, the report said.

CERTIFICATION DISPUTE

The NTSB report documents correspondences between the FAA's Honolulu Flight Standards District Office and Tora Flight Adventures over whether the company was required to have Part 135 certification.

The agency first notified the company in August 2003 that it was investigating complaints about its operations. The company responded that it did not need Part 135 certification because its airplanes were used solely as a means of transportation to its primary business at Panda Ranch, and that passengers were paying for the ground activities on Moloka'i, not the flight.

The response apparently satisfied the FAA, which sent a letter to Tora Flight Adventures in October 2003 saying it had found no violation of federal aviation regulations and that the operator "may consider the matter closed," according to the NTSB report.

In March 2005, an FAA inspector contacted the company again after receiving additional complaints. Tora Flight Adventures responded that the issue had been resolved in 2003 and that its operations had not changed since then, the NTSB report said.

But in August 2005, the FAA notified the company that its flight operations required an appropriate air carrier certificate, and that no enforcement action would be taken if Tora Flight Adventures started the process of getting one.

The FAA also cited several safety concerns, such as no drug-testing program for pilots, unsafe aircraft, passengers flown in a helicopter by an unqualified pilot, noncompliance with air tour rules that require flotation equipment, and allegations that company employees were told to ignore Part 135 rules once certification was complete, "to the point of falsification of records if necessary to show compliance."

ALLEGATIONS DENIED

The company, which kept a helicopter at the 60-acre ranch, denied the allegations.

After several other exchanges, an FAA letter dated April 25, 2006, said the agency had become aware the company was providing air tours of Moloka'i, Maui and Lana'i without the required air carrier certificate. A separate cease-and-desist letter issued the same date ordered Tora Flight Adventures to halt the flights.

The company response on May 5, 2006, challenged the FAA's investigation and referred to the agency's 2003 declaration that its operations were in compliance with aviation rules.

Despite claims by Tora Flight Adventures that it was merely transporting passengers to Panda Ranch, an NTSB investigator reported finding numerous mentions of air tours offered by the company on its Web site and other travel sites.

An unidentified tour agency told the investigator that it averaged 100 Tora Flight Adventures bookings a month, mostly to Japanese tourists. A second tour company said it booked 210 passengers for Panda Ranch visits in 2005, the NTSB report said.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.