FAA grounds 2,800 Bell helicopters across the United States for safety inspection

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered grounding and inspection of Bell Helicopter’s civil aircraft models for checking and repairing a control mechanism that was improperly installed.

Photo: The popular Bell 407 helicopter

An official of the Federal Aviation Administration said that 2,800 Bell helicopters would be grounded to look for “improperly installed bearings that could cause the co-pilot controls to malfunction” and the part would have to be replaced if it was improperly installed.

Bell Helicopter said in a statement that the affected helicopters, grounded according to the FAA’s Emergency Airworthiness Directive, are Bell Model 206A series, 206B series, 206L series, model 407, and model 427 helicopters. Bell’s Chopper 4 is a Model 407.

The company said that it found out the problem a week ago while trying to deliver a new helicopter, adding that it expected the US Federal Aviation Administration to issue a new advisory limiting the number of aircraft to be grounded to less than 110 new helicopters.

Bell Helicopter, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, makes helicopters as well as tiltrotor aircraft. According to the company’s webiste, the unique tiltrotor aircraft lifts like a helicopter, then fly like an airplane with twice the speed, three times the payload and five times the range of traditional helicopters.

The US Federal Aviation Administration issued its Emergency Airworthiness Directive after Transport Canada, the aviation regulator of Canada, noticed a problem with a control mechanism in Bell helicopters.

The 2,800 Bell helicopters ordered to be grounded in the United States included those used by television stations, police and fire rescue service across the US. Canada had grounded the Bell helicopters in question on March 12, 2009.

The Emergency Airworthiness Directive, the US Federal Aviation Administration said, was “prompted by a report by Transport Canada of a bearing incorrectly installed in the co-pilot cyclic control lever assembly.”

The problem with the Bell helicopter bearing, the FAA directive added, “could result in the loss of control of the helicopter and all helicopters matching these descriptions are grounded until the bearing is replaced.”

According to aviation experts, The Bell 206 and 407 models are the company’s best-selling and most popular civil helicopters, which are extensively used for medical, police, fire and television news-gathering operations.

Bell Helicopter makes civil helicopters at its plant in Mirabel, near Montreal in Canada, and they include parts manufactured at Bell’s plants in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States.

The website aero-news.net quoted an official of the Dallas Police Department as saying that all of the department’s Bell helicopters had been inspected and no problem was detected.