Dog Sledding Excursion -- any opinions??

[chilidog]

Hi,

I've been looking into the dog sledding excursions in Juneau and wanted to know if anyone had any opinions about it, good or bad?? I'm leaning toward booking with Coastal Helicopters...any opinions on this company? Thanks in advance.

[Budget Queen]

They are a long established well run company. The dog sledding option will be in it's second season this year. No bad reviews that I have heard of???

[chilidog]

I'm sure they're a well respected company (and I have made a reservation with them) but I'm a little concerned about the safety of the helicopter trips in general. I did a search on the company yesterday (while looking for their website) and I saw that they had a helicopter accident a couple of years ago where about 6 people died. According to the FAA report, it was due to something similar to "white out" conditions where the pilot could not tell how close he actually was to the ground (the helicopter lacked the appropriate radar and the pilot was not certified in this type of flying condition). This has me a little concerned as I saw that other companies experienced the same problems under the same conditions. The report also suggested that with the increased number of helicopter flights (due to increased tourist demand) it would be reasonable to assume that, unless tour companies made some changes, these types of accidents would continue to happen.

 

As I've mentioned, this report was a couple of years old; does anyone have any information to make me feel comfortable? What tour companies do the cruise lines use? Is there anyway to get safety information on them? Thanks.

[Budget Queen]

The cruise lines use ERA and TEMSCO. Perhaps you will feel better booking one of those??? Unfortunately you can't predict the future.