Helicopter Repair
To whom it may concern,
I am the Attorney that represented Richard Harper recently in Federal Court regarding a helicopter repair case. I am not one that typically engages in blogging activity and I do not plan on making any further response to this blog.
However, Mr. Harper has asked me to clear up some confusion and I have agreed to do so. He would like to point out that neither he nor his Company Apple International carried out any Airframe Repairs on the subject helicopter, the Airframe was sent to an independent FAA Approved Airframe Repair Station, equipped with a JIG for Bell 206 series Airframe repairs. Mr. Harper wishes to make it crystal clear that he (nor Apple) never ever touched, removed or affixed any Data Plates.
Mr. Harper agrees that In the United States Title 18 USC Section 38(a) makes it an offense to “knowingly and with the intent to defraud, falsifies or conceals a material fact concerning any aircraft…makes or uses any materially false writing, entry, certification, document, record, data plate, label, or electronic communication concerning any aircraft….” Apple International relied on the Books & Records entries made by the Repair Station.
The purpose of 18 USC 38(a) is to prevent people from taking scrap helicopter parts and putting together a spliced-up helicopter and selling it as if were a good unit. There is a slang term that is used by the government agents for people who do this, the slang term is making a “frankencopter.”
Mr. Harper did not produce a frakencopter. The best evidence of this is a letter that is in the Federal Court record that was mailed by the purchaser of the helicopter and that I have attached (it is public record).
The purchaser of the helicopter acknowledged that the helicopter was in good condition. In fact, the Federal Agent involved stated that had the helicopter been sold in Canada or any other Country, there would be absolutely nothing illegal about the transaction. However, in America, it is considered illegal.
As I stated earlier I will not be responding to this blog but I do want to make clear to anybody reading this blog that the helicopter sold by Mr. Harper was in perfect operating condition as has been acknowledged by the purchaser of the helicopter, it just so happened that in the United States you cannot repair a fuselage to the degree that the Repair Station in question did.
Mr. Harper has accepted this as a lesson for anybody that repairs helicopters; particularly fuselages.
Last edited by Attorney; 18th Nov 2020 at 19:01.