Helicopter crash claims fire crews

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Nine people were killed in California in the crash of a helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., the deadliest U.S. civil aviation accident in recent memory involving the Stratford manufacturer”™s aircraft.

A Sikorsky S-61N went down while transporting fire crews battling blazes in the Shasta-TrinityNational Forest, killing seven firefighters and two crewmen employed by Perkasie, Pa.-based Carson Helicopters Inc. Four people survived the initial crash with significant injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. One survivor told the Los Angeles Times that the helicopter”™s rotor may have clipped a tree on takeoff.

The FAA issued a directive in April regarding Sikorsky S-model helicopters, the newspaper reported, after one developed fatigue failures in the main rotor shaft.

Carson Helicopter is renowned in the industry for its in-house design upgrades on the S-61, which Sikorsky stopped making more than 30 years ago. In last month”™s edition of the trade magazine Vertical, the company”™s founder Frank Carson declared the S-61 the best helicopter ever produced.

In separate Sikorsky news, the company received a $285 million contract from the U.S. Army for Black Hawk helicopters the branch is selling to Saudi Arabia.