Cyclic Hotline
6th Jan 2001, 20:24
I read this story in Universal Helicopter, but actually had heard bits if it before.
Very scary what the bottom feeders in this business get up to, and there are a lot of flakes lurking around there!
FAA tracking down copters Clearwater company fixed
St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Nov 17, 2000; WILLIAM R.
LEVESQUE;
Abstract:
Naylor's son, Todd Naylor, a pilot who worked for his father, and the Naylors' Clearwater attorney, John Trevena, confirmed the FAA's action and the number of aircraft involved.
[Richard Naylor] "Naylor's M.O. was anything for a buck," said Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff's Office, which investigated Naylor for fraud. "FAA regulations meant squat to him.
Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, said the FAA told Pinellas investigators about the Indiana crash and a possible connection to Naylor's company. She declined to discuss details of the local investigation.
Full Text: Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 17, 2000
Surplus military equipment is believed to have been used in the helicopters, four of which have crashed since 1996.
The Federal Aviation Administration is searching for the owners of up to 42 helicopters refurbished by a Clearwater company because of fears the aircraft might have serious safety defects.
Helicopters produced by a company that did business as World Helicopters, Thunderbird Helicopters or Dynamic Helicopters have been involved in at least four crashes since 1996, accidents claiming three lives.
The owner of the now-bankrupt company is suspected of installing surplus military equipment, including engines, on his helicopters and then selling them to people who were deceived about the age of the parts, police investigators in Georgia say.
The owner, Richard Naylor, 54, is serving a 10-year prison term in Georgia on a theft conviction for stealing $125,000 from a customer who paid for a helicopter that Naylor never delivered.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said Naylor is under investigation in connection with fraud and an arson that destroyed the company and six helicopters in June 1996 at the Clearwater Executive Airpark. The fire caused up to $4-million in damage.
The FAA confirmed that it has contacted owners of some of the helicopters produced by the company, but a spokeswoman refused further comment.
Naylor's son, Todd Naylor, a pilot who worked for his father, and the Naylors' Clearwater attorney, John Trevena, confirmed the FAA's action and the number of aircraft involved.
Todd Naylor said he is meeting with Tampa-based FAA investigator Jerry Wilkie on Wednesday to help the agency find helicopters with suspect equipment.
"We're going to fully cooperate with any questions the FAA may have relating to tracing the parts," Todd Naylor said Thursday. "It's sickening. I'm a commercial pilot. When I look at an accident that kills someone, I think, 'That could have been me.'"
The younger Naylor said he and his father are not at fault. He instead blamed problems on an associate who helped Naylor operate Dynamic Helicopters in 1998 and 1999.
Todd Naylor said he had heard mechanics at the company complain about being pressured to approve inspections of helicopters that should otherwise not have passed muster before sale.
"These guys had suspicions about what was going on," Naylor said. "But the mechanics all did what they were told to do."
Still, investigators in Pinellas and Georgia appear to have focused on Richard Naylor.
Richard "Naylor's M.O. was anything for a buck," said Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff's Office, which investigated Naylor for fraud. "FAA regulations meant squat to him.
"There's a real public safety issue here. I would suspect anything he sold as having questionable parts. You'd be crazy to fly one of these things." Richard Naylor has not been charged with any crime relating to defective helicopters.
Jordan and Todd Naylor said the FAA had been investigating the company for at least a year.
Both said the investigation pre-dated an Aug. 19 crash in a refurbished Fairchild Hiller copter in Valparaiso, Ind., that killed surgeon Brian Solmos, 44.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not completed an investigation of the crash, and it is not known whether the aircraft contained surplus military equipment. Investigators said preliminary evidence indicated the helicopter's main rotor fell off.
Trevena said the FAA's Wilkie, who declined to comment, told him that the agency had identified the aircraft as possibly containing suspect equipment but had not been able to contact Solmos before the crash.
"That crash was unfortunate and probably could have been avoided," Todd Naylor said. "My sympathy goes out to the physician who died and his family."
Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, said the FAA told Pinellas investigators about the Indiana crash and a possible connection to Naylor's company. She declined to discuss details of the local investigation.
Asked if Rice's office was working to contact helicopter owners, Pasha said, "I can tell you right now, we're doing it."
She said sheriff's investigators were cooperating with the FAA investigation.
In June 1996, a Fairchild Hiller helicopter refurbished by Naylor's company crashed in Sumter County on a flight to Orlando, killing Pasco resident Malcolm Timmins, 48, and J.A. Palfrey of England.
The NTSB blamed the crash on a defective tail rotor, though an NTSB report made no mention of surplus military equipment. The NTSB also said the pilot failed to properly follow emergency procedure during a crash landing.
Tina Price, a secretary for Richard Naylor, testified at his Georgia theft trial in
September that Naylor instructed her to get a maintenance log from the helicopter before NTSB investigators could examine the wreckage. It was unclear how Price came to be at the crash scene.
Naylor, who said he was friends with the men who died and had loaned them the helicopter, denied doing so.
Naylor testified the company that manufactured the helicopter had issued an alert about a problem with certain tail rotors.
"Well, that's a manufacturing problem," Naylor testified. "That's not something I would have anything to do with. . . . I flew it the day before."
Very scary what the bottom feeders in this business get up to, and there are a lot of flakes lurking around there!
FAA tracking down copters Clearwater company fixed
St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Nov 17, 2000; WILLIAM R.
LEVESQUE;
Abstract:
Naylor's son, Todd Naylor, a pilot who worked for his father, and the Naylors' Clearwater attorney, John Trevena, confirmed the FAA's action and the number of aircraft involved.
[Richard Naylor] "Naylor's M.O. was anything for a buck," said Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff's Office, which investigated Naylor for fraud. "FAA regulations meant squat to him.
Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, said the FAA told Pinellas investigators about the Indiana crash and a possible connection to Naylor's company. She declined to discuss details of the local investigation.
Full Text: Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 17, 2000
Surplus military equipment is believed to have been used in the helicopters, four of which have crashed since 1996.
The Federal Aviation Administration is searching for the owners of up to 42 helicopters refurbished by a Clearwater company because of fears the aircraft might have serious safety defects.
Helicopters produced by a company that did business as World Helicopters, Thunderbird Helicopters or Dynamic Helicopters have been involved in at least four crashes since 1996, accidents claiming three lives.
The owner of the now-bankrupt company is suspected of installing surplus military equipment, including engines, on his helicopters and then selling them to people who were deceived about the age of the parts, police investigators in Georgia say.
The owner, Richard Naylor, 54, is serving a 10-year prison term in Georgia on a theft conviction for stealing $125,000 from a customer who paid for a helicopter that Naylor never delivered.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said Naylor is under investigation in connection with fraud and an arson that destroyed the company and six helicopters in June 1996 at the Clearwater Executive Airpark. The fire caused up to $4-million in damage.
The FAA confirmed that it has contacted owners of some of the helicopters produced by the company, but a spokeswoman refused further comment.
Naylor's son, Todd Naylor, a pilot who worked for his father, and the Naylors' Clearwater attorney, John Trevena, confirmed the FAA's action and the number of aircraft involved.
Todd Naylor said he is meeting with Tampa-based FAA investigator Jerry Wilkie on Wednesday to help the agency find helicopters with suspect equipment.
"We're going to fully cooperate with any questions the FAA may have relating to tracing the parts," Todd Naylor said Thursday. "It's sickening. I'm a commercial pilot. When I look at an accident that kills someone, I think, 'That could have been me.'"
The younger Naylor said he and his father are not at fault. He instead blamed problems on an associate who helped Naylor operate Dynamic Helicopters in 1998 and 1999.
Todd Naylor said he had heard mechanics at the company complain about being pressured to approve inspections of helicopters that should otherwise not have passed muster before sale.
"These guys had suspicions about what was going on," Naylor said. "But the mechanics all did what they were told to do."
Still, investigators in Pinellas and Georgia appear to have focused on Richard Naylor.
Richard "Naylor's M.O. was anything for a buck," said Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff's Office, which investigated Naylor for fraud. "FAA regulations meant squat to him.
"There's a real public safety issue here. I would suspect anything he sold as having questionable parts. You'd be crazy to fly one of these things." Richard Naylor has not been charged with any crime relating to defective helicopters.
Jordan and Todd Naylor said the FAA had been investigating the company for at least a year.
Both said the investigation pre-dated an Aug. 19 crash in a refurbished Fairchild Hiller copter in Valparaiso, Ind., that killed surgeon Brian Solmos, 44.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not completed an investigation of the crash, and it is not known whether the aircraft contained surplus military equipment. Investigators said preliminary evidence indicated the helicopter's main rotor fell off.
Trevena said the FAA's Wilkie, who declined to comment, told him that the agency had identified the aircraft as possibly containing suspect equipment but had not been able to contact Solmos before the crash.
"That crash was unfortunate and probably could have been avoided," Todd Naylor said. "My sympathy goes out to the physician who died and his family."
Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, said the FAA told Pinellas investigators about the Indiana crash and a possible connection to Naylor's company. She declined to discuss details of the local investigation.
Asked if Rice's office was working to contact helicopter owners, Pasha said, "I can tell you right now, we're doing it."
She said sheriff's investigators were cooperating with the FAA investigation.
In June 1996, a Fairchild Hiller helicopter refurbished by Naylor's company crashed in Sumter County on a flight to Orlando, killing Pasco resident Malcolm Timmins, 48, and J.A. Palfrey of England.
The NTSB blamed the crash on a defective tail rotor, though an NTSB report made no mention of surplus military equipment. The NTSB also said the pilot failed to properly follow emergency procedure during a crash landing.
Tina Price, a secretary for Richard Naylor, testified at his Georgia theft trial in
September that Naylor instructed her to get a maintenance log from the helicopter before NTSB investigators could examine the wreckage. It was unclear how Price came to be at the crash scene.
Naylor, who said he was friends with the men who died and had loaned them the helicopter, denied doing so.
Naylor testified the company that manufactured the helicopter had issued an alert about a problem with certain tail rotors.
"Well, that's a manufacturing problem," Naylor testified. "That's not something I would have anything to do with. . . . I flew it the day before."