(Columbia) July 13, 2004 - The Regional One helicopter that crashed Tuesday was a Bell 407. Spartanburg Regional Healthcare describes, on its website, the chopper as a model "with a strong record of reliability and safety."
The Bell 407 is a seven seater and often used for medical transport.
The Bell Corporation describes the 407 as "safe and reliable," but federal safety officials say it has been involved in at least 26 crashes over the last five years. Those incidents, not including Tuesday's in Newberry County, resulted in 20 deaths.
The company says the number of accidents involving the 407 is no greater on average than other comparable helicopters.
The Regional One helicopter was three-years-old. Med-Trans began its partnership with Spartanburg Regional in May of 2003. A spokesman says Med-Trans uses Bell 407's almost exclusively. The company has 13 medivac operations around the country.
Prior to this year, Med-Trans said it had a 20 year record of accident free service. One of its medivac helicopters crashed in Odessa, Texas in March of this year, killing all four people aboard. The crash is under investigation by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration. That crash also involved a Bell 407.
The WIS Newshawk is a Bell model 206 and considered one of the workhorses of rotary flight. The Bell 206 model has been involved in more than 200 incidents since 1996.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the two models have similar safety records.
Posted by BrettWitt
