FAA Spokesman: Agency Told Las Vegas Lights Last Year Helicopter Cash Drop Promotion Was ‘Not Acceptable’; Lights Owner: ‘That’s Absolutely False’

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

It’s not every day a professional sports team throws a fan promotion that creates a federal aviation investigation for the second year in a row.

But then again, the Las Vegas Lights soccer team enjoys pushing the envelope on its fan promotions. The Lights’ biggest promotion this season was Sept. 7 when the United Soccer League team hired Skyline Helicopter Tours to drop $10,000 in cash at halftime of a game at Cashman Field in downtown Las Vegas.

Technically speaking, the FAA is “investigating the pilot who was flying the aircraft that did the cash drop,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor wrote in an email Friday. The pilot is Dean Miarecki, owner of Skyline Helicopter Tours of North Las Vegas. He was unavailable for comment Friday. The cash drop pilot is being checked out on minimum safe altitudes and careless or reckless operation issues, Gregor said.

The Lights also staged a similar helicopter cash drop promotion during its maiden season in 2018. But that helicopter cash drop was conducted by a different helicopter company.

Gregor said the Lights’ helicopter cash drop during the team’s inaugural season in 2018 was “not acceptable.”

“We told the team last year that promotions like this were not acceptable, and we explained why. We didn’t expect to see a repeat,” Gregor wrote to LVSportsBiz.com.

But Lights owner Brett Lashbrook said the team was never told by the FAA in 2018 that the helicopter cash drop during the first season was not acceptable.

“That’s absolutely false. The FAA never communicated that to us last year,” Lashbrook said.

The FAA disagrees about that. Spokesman Gregor wrote to LVSportsBiz.com, “The FAA safety inspector who investigated last year’s incident spoke verbally with both the team’s vice-president of marketing and CFO and explained why the stunt was dangerous and why they should not attempt to repeat it.”

And Lights owner Lashbrook countered: “I stand fully by my statement.  The FAA last year never told us to not hold the promotion again.  This is why this season we engaged Skyline Helicopters since they are a widely reputable local helicopter company that regularly does these types of promotional events.  It’s disappointing to hear the FAA use revisionary history on this one.”

Here’s what the FAA is checking into for this year’s helicopter cash drop: “Where someone flew a helicopter at low altitude over a crowd,” Gregor wrote, “we would look at the following regulations:

§91.119   Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a)    Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

 §91.13   Careless or reckless operation.

(a)    Aircraft operations for the purpose of air navigation. No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.”

Gregor noted, “We investigated a similar incident at a Lights game last year and required the pilot to go through remedial training. The pilot and helicopter company involved in this year’s incident are different from those involved in last year’s incident.”

Lashbrook said Skyline pilot/owner Miarecki has conducted all types of helicopter item drops like golf balls, flowers over weddings and ashes over funerals.

“Skyline is licensed and they have taken every safe precaution required by the FAA,” Lashbrook said.

 

Lashbrook also stressed the FAA did not contact the team about not holding this year’s helicopter cash drop promotion.

“There is nothing about this that we were trying to hide. We put this on social media. This is the most high-profile promotion we do every year,” Lashbrook said.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with Skyline. We are disappointed to see the reaction by the FAA after the event. With that said, the Lights FC will work with the FAA and cooperate fully,” he said.

But he noted, “We are a soccer party and the government ain’t gonna stop that.”

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