Vertical Aviation International (VAI) has publicly endorsed Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon for introducing an aviation safety bill that addresses hazards posed by slacklines to aircraft operating at low altitude.

The trade association, which represents the vertical aviation sector including helicopter and advanced air mobility operators, applauded the senator's move. The bill targets a specific and growing risk: slacklines — high-tension lines strung between anchor points — that are difficult or impossible for pilots to see from the cockpit.

For vertical aviation, the threat is acute. Helicopter emergency medical services, utility inspections, agricultural operations, and firefighting missions routinely fly at altitudes where a slackline can intersect a flight path. A taut line, sometimes only centimeters thick and anchored across canyons, gorges, or ridgelines, presents a near-invisible obstruction. Strikes on tail rotors, main rotors, or windshields can be fatal, and wire-strike events remain a persistent cause of helicopter accidents worldwide.

VAI's endorsement signals the association's view that existing regulatory and legal frameworks do not adequately deter the unauthorized rigging of slacklines in airspace used by low-flying aircraft. Legislative action at the federal level, the association argues, is needed to close that gap.

The bill's introduction by Merkley — whose home state of Oregon is a center of both slacklining activity in its river gorges and helicopter operations including firefighting and forest work — ties the legislative push directly to a region where the two uses of terrain collide. Gorge areas popular with slackline riggers overlap with corridors flown by utility, tour, and public-safety helicopters.

VAI's statement did not outline the bill's specific enforcement mechanisms or penalties, and the text of the legislation will determine whether it creates new federal prohibitions, augments existing obstruction rules, or establishes requirements for marking and reporting lines rigged in navigable airspace.

For operators, the stakes extend beyond flight safety. A slackline strike carries direct cost consequences: airframe damage or loss, mission abort, insurance exposure, and potential service interruptions for HEMS and utility contracts operating on tight dispatch schedules. Wire-strike prevention has driven decades of investment in wire-detection systems and cable-cutters, but equipment mitigates rather than eliminates the hazard from lines that pilots cannot see.

The legislative process now determines the bill's fate — committee referral, possible amendment, and the likelihood of movement in a Senate calendar crowded with reauthorization and appropriations measures. VI's backing gives the proposal an industry constituency, but passage will depend on whether the measure gathers co-sponsors and support from other aviation groups and land-management agencies.

If the bill advances, the next milestones to watch are the codified definition of covered lines, the penalty structure, and any mandate for coordination between land managers and the Federal Aviation Administration on reporting rigged lines in low-level airspace.