FH1100
just to clear up a point or two.
It's got emergency floats in the sponsons!
Yes, but in a heavy crash landing on water the sponsons can (and did) rip off, rendering those floats worthless.
The centre section of the sponson, which is the fuel tank section, is designed to break away in the event of a crash, and in the case of a ditching, sinking. This, given the evidence of the pictures posted on the internet, Did happen. The sponson floats are attached to the rear sponson section which is also attached to the main undercarriage hard points. these stay with the aircraft after ditching along with the front section of the sponson housing the life rafts. Both can clearly be seen in the photographs.
Better bird-strike protection.
Okay, I'll buy that! But...wait...didn't the S-76 already have that until operators started replacing the glass windscreens with plastic? Damn.
There is more to improving birdstrike protection. Including moving the inclined drive shaft to the rear of the tail pylon, among other improvments.
Plastic winshield was a retrofit made by an affiliate of Bell helicopters. sabotage?