Originally Posted by
comingup
If it were a newer aircraft in the beginning of it's production run, I would agree. But after almost 50 years of production and millions of hours on these machines, probably an overreaction.
However, there have been changes in component suppliers including errors in parts production processes which have resulted in fatal accidents or serious incidents with other long established helicopter types (not only from Bell), some mentioned in this thread already. So that could finally prove to be the case here also.
Dick Smith is able to be cautious, and I would do same in his position. Gets harder to make such a decision if operating a 206L on ongoing income earning commercial work.