Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A helicopter crash Wednesday at South Valley Regional Airport was the latest in a string of accidents for a Salt Lake City-based flight school.
- March 1, 2011: At the Tooele airport, two Upper Limit employees were doing "long-line" training, which involves placing a load over a specific location. The Bell 206B suddenly yawed to the right and plunged to the ground. The pilot managed to slow the descent just before impact, but the crash was hard enough to break the tail rotor.
- February 2009: A 21-year-old instructor was flying members of her family in an Upper Limit R44 helicopter up a canyon in the Francis Peak area near Bountiful. While trying to reverse course downhill after making a low pass over a ridge, she crashed and rolled the aircraft, severing the tail boom. The NTSB said the pilot made an "improper decision to fly at low altitude while maneuvering in mountainous terrain" and inadvertently exceeded the helicopter's climb capacity.
- May 2008: At the former Salt Lake City Municipal 2 Airport (now South Valley Regional Airport), a 32-year-old flight instructor prematurely started a maneuver, leading a student to improperly press an anti-torque pedal. The R22 — the same one flown in Wednesday's accident — crashed, with the NTSB noting "inadequate supervision" and "delayed remedial action" by the instructor.
- June 2007: a 21-year-old flight instructor on a cross-country training flight with a student crashed in Park City while demonstrating an emergency maneuver, bending an R22's support tube and fuselage. The NTSB noted a "failure to maintain rotor RPM."
- April 2006: A 40-year-old instructor and student landed at the Tooele airport, then took off again to resume their lesson. The Robinson R22 helicopter got no more than 70 feet in the air before crashing back to the ground. The NTSB noted a "failure to maintain control" and gusty winds.
#crashes_div
The helicopter lost power on the way back to the airport during a lesson and the instructor made an emergency landing at 12:40 p.m., seriously damaging the aircraft and leaving a student pilot with a minor head injury, police said. West Jordan Police Sgt. Drew Sanders said the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what caused the power loss.
When a helicopter owned by Upper Limit crashed a month ago at the Tooele Valley Airport, the flight school was quick to say no students were aboard, although a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board labeled the training exercise by staff members an "instructional flight."
A review of records shows Wednesday's accident was the seventh helicopter crash involving the company's equipment and personnel in as many years, more than any other flight school in Utah.
None of the crashes caused serious injuries, but several people familiar with Upper Limit, including a former maintenance worker who says the company's owner asked him to alter evidence of a crash, are questioning its safety record.
Company officials said it would not be fair to associate some of the recent accidents with the flight school, since they did not involve students.
Allegations from former Upper Limit employee
Ivan, who asked that KSL News only use his first name, is a former maintenance director for Upper Limit. He said Sean Reid — who owns the company along with his mother, Lois Reid — asked him to manipulate evidence of an accident near Jackson, Wyo., in September 2005.
According to Ivan, Reid crashed the Robinson R44 helicopter with three other people aboard, then asked him to drain 15 gallons of fuel, weighing about 100 pounds, from the craft to reduce the chance that investigators could deem it overweight. Ivan said he refused. An NTSB report says there were only two passengers.
"They always hold over your head the fact that you're not going to have a job if you don't do what they want," said Ivan, who left the company in 2007 due in part to being "overworked" and what he called its "horrible" reputation.
He also said that, in his first week working for Upper Limit, an employee bent the frame of another helicopter in a hard landing in Park City that went unreported. [Click the play button above to watch Ivan's interview with KSL News]
Upper Limit's response to allegations
In response, an Upper Limit spokeswoman categorically denied that the company has ever altered evidence of a crash. Jess Roy said Upper Limit terminated Ivan for "incompetence and low performance levels," calling him "a disgruntled former employee."
She said the FAA had action taken against his mechanic's license, which he denied. An FAA spokesman would only say that Ivan's license is current. Ivan now does maintenance for another helicopter school in Utah.
In a statement, Upper Limit said it takes students "through the most challenging and riskiest parts of their career."
The school said its number of accidents is low, relative to the industry standard of six accidents per 100,000 flight hours.
"This is exceptional due to the fact that these training helicopters are performing practice emergency procedures day in and day out, putting the aircraft in situations not normally experienced by commercial operators in their day-to-day operations," the statement said.
The company declined to say how many hours it flies or how many students are enrolled.
According to Roy, the company met Tuesday with the Salt Lake Flight Standards District Office, the local oversight branch of the FAA. The FAA spokesman said Upper Limit has not received any sanctions or other discipline.
"Safety is always the FAA's top priority," said Mike Fergus. "Any operator that's involved in multiple accidents in a relatively short period is going to get heightened attention from us."
Local helicopter pilots, schools weigh in on controversy
Not everyone in Utah's helicopter industry has a dim view of Upper Limit.
"Most everyone who comes in here looking for flight instruction, I refer them to Upper Limit," said Mario Nichol, chief pilot for Classic Helicopters in Bountiful. "If I thought they would do a bad job, I wouldn't do that."
Most everyone who comes in here looking for flight instruction, I refer them to Upper Limit. If I thought they would do a bad job, I wouldn't do that.
–Mario Nichol, Classic Helicopters
#nichol_quote
Still, Nichol noted his own company, which does demanding flights including firefighting and commercial operations, has not had a single accident in the past six years.
And Ben Tidswell, a pilot for the North Carolina-based company U.S. Helicopters who flies KSL-TV's Chopper 5, dismissed Upper Limit's claim of operating within industry standards.
"I find six accidents in six years for a company as a whole, whether it be the commercial side or the flight school side, is not a good enough safety standard," Tidswell said in an interview before Wednesday's crash.
Other people involved in Utah's helicopter industry who were critical of Upper Limit were reluctant to speak openly because they said they did not want to criticize a competitor or feared retaliation.
The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, which has accredited Upper Limit since December 2009, communicates with the FAA at least four times a year to make sure the flight schools it oversees are complying with regulations, an ACCSC spokesman said.
Upper Limit signed a five-year contract in July 2008 with Salt Lake Community College to provide helicopter flight instruction. An SLCC spokesman noted that none of the accidents involving flight school operations had happened since that contract began.
"We're just as diligent with that contract as any other," said the spokesman, Joy Tlou, adding that the school is not reconsidering the deal, though either party can terminate it with a 60-day notice.
Upper Limit's association with an academic program allows some military veterans to receive full funding for their training through new benefits added to the GI Bill after 9/11. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will only reimburse 60 percent of the cost for students at schools without such a setup.
Email:pkoepp@ksl.com
