Bell Tail Rotors Subject of Transport Canada Warning

Transport Canada (TC) has issued an Urgent Airworthiness Directive that calls for the inspection of certain tail-rotor components. The directive covers eight Bell Helicopter alert service bulletins for the 206, 222, 230, 407, 427 and 430.

TC identified the concern as “Balance weights departing from the tail-rotor blades during flight. The cause has been narrowed down to missing weight screws. This failure can happen at any time.”

Operators are urged to review the service bulletins to determine if the listed blades are installed on their aircraft. Listed blades should be removed and replaced with airworthy blades before further flig