Congressman Neguse Requests a Hearing for Helicopter Safety Legislation in the Ways and Means Committee

Washington, D.C.— Congressman Joe Neguse, along with Congressman Perlmutter, and Congresswoman Maloney are requesting the House Ways and Means Committee take up helicopter safety legislation introduced earlier this year. The three members sent a letter to Chairman Richard Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee requesting the Committee hold a hearing on Neguse’s bill to incentivize emergency medical helicopters to upgrade their fuel systems. The bill was introduced in partnership with Karen Mahany, whose husband was killed in a Flight for Life helicopter crash in Frisco, CO in 2015 and Deve Repsher, one of the flight nurses onboard.

“On July 3, 2015, a Flight for Life helicopter crashed in Frisco, Colorado—claiming the life of the pilot and seriously injuring both flight nurses on board,” reads the letter from Congressman Neguse and his colleagues. “Only 32 seconds after the helicopter took off, it crashed and erupted into flames in a resultant post-crash fire outside St. Anthony Medical Center. The pilot, Patrick Mahany, had been an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam and had flown as a helicopter pilot for Flight For Life for 27 years before he was killed in the crash. Dave Repsher, one of the Flight for Life nurses, suffered burns on 90 percent of his body as a result of the post-crash fire and the other nurse on board, Matt Bowe, also sustained injuries.”

The letter can be read in full here.

H.R. 675, the Safe Helicopters Now Act, would incentivize emergency medical helicopters that are currently in use to upgrade to safer fuel systems. The bill offers a 10 percent tax credit to helicopter manufacturers to offset the total cost of the upgraded fuel system, in the same taxable year. Since introducing the legislation earlier this year, Neguse has lobbied the Ways and Means Committee, the Committee of jurisdiction, to take it up for consideration. In June, he testified before the Committee in support of the bill.

Neguse introduced the Safe Helicopters Now Act in January, after working with Karen Mahany and Dave Repsher on the legislation. In June 2019, Congressman Neguse joined Governor Polis and the Mahany family in Frisco for a naming dedication ceremony for the Frisco Post Office, named in honor of Patrick E. Mahany Jr.