Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) president Peter Wilson yesterday said the FMC was asking the Ombudsman to intervene after information acquired under the Official Information Act cast doubt on Doc's ability to regulate the tourism industry.
He said some aviation operators were getting a "windfall'' as national park rules were disregarded.
"One lucky operator has received a windfall of 2000 extra landings. Doc planning staff are revealed as enabling this through their 'brilliance' at finding loopholes in the law; loopholes that in our opinion don't exist.''
Mr Wilson, from Dunedin, said the information released showed "a number of closed-door workshops and conversations between the aviation industry and Doc'', an increase from 14 helicopter landings a day on Mt Tutoko's Ngapunatoru Ice Plateau to 80 per day and a disregard for Fiordland's management plan.
Doc director of planning and permissions Marie Long said Doc had decided to allow more helicopter landings at one spot in the national park for a 12-month trial.
The Fiordland park plan made provisions for such a trial.
"Doc needs to balance the growing demands from tourism operators for more scenic glacier landings across the southern South Island parks with the impact such landings can have on other users and the environment.
"There are currently limited opportunities for such growth and Doc acknowledges more work is needed with both the tourism industry and outdoor user groups to manage this situation.''
The increase in helicopter landings at the site would be reviewed in 12 months, and the Southland Conservation Board, Ngai Tahu and alpine groups would be consulted every three months, Ms Long said.
Former FMC president Robin McNeil has said that every fine day there would be 160 over-flights ruining the wilderness experience for trampers and climbers in the Pembroke Wilderness Area and the Darrans Remote Area.
"Even the tourists at Milford Sound won't escape,'' Mr McNeill said.
"You may as well commune with nature beside the Auckland motorway,'' he said.
Flights to the plateau can cost about $375 a person. One helicopter company advertises a short nature walk, a flight down Milford Sound followed by a West Coast beach landing and a plateau landing from $930 a person. Doc receives a fee of about $25 per person for plateau landings.
In 2014, then ombudsman Prof Ron Paterson said a Doc decision to increase numbers of guided overnight walkers on the Routeburn Track in the face of national park management plans was "nonsense on stilts''. He added he had significant reservations about the legality of that decision.
