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Part One: Helicopter Technologies, Van Nevel And Inside A Federal Raid

February 11, 2008

Federal officials conducted a raid at Helicopter Technologies in Century back on January 9. Combat gear, a sniper in the woods, windows busted for an entry team…all part of the raid according to the company’s owner, Georges Van Nevel. This is the first of a three part series about Helicopter Technologies and Van Nevel. Tuesday, we’ll take you to that January morning when the federal raid happened through Van Nevel’s eyes. And we’ll learn what he has to say about why the whole thing happened. Finally, on Wednesday morning, we’ll look at the present and the future of Helicopter Technologies, Van Nevel and how all this relates to the Town of Century and the entire North Escambia area.

It was about 6:30 on the warm late afternoon of September 17, 2007, near Hosston, Louisiana. A lady sees a helicopter that “was not moving fast” over her home, just over the treetops. It’s so low that she waves at the person in the passenger seat and thinks the chopper is going to land in her front yard.

Moments later, 911 dispatchers in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, begin to receive several calls from people that saw a low flying aircraft and then reported seeing smoke. Deputies from the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Department were not immediately able to find a crash, but a local medical helicopter found the smoldering wreckage. The bodies of Jeffery Daniel Legro, 24, and Joseph Benjamin Grammer, 36, were recovered at the crash site (pictured above).

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the crash says the FH-1100 helicopter was registered to and operated by Van Nevel Helicopters, Inc. of Century.

The owner of Van Nevel Helicopters , Georges Van Nevel (pictured left), says he had just sold the helicopter to Grammer. Federal Aviation Administration records examined by NorthEscambia.com support Van Nevel’s claim, showing that the helicopter with identification N313BG was sold to Leading Edge Helicopters, Inc. of Boulder City, Colorado. Grammer was reported to be the owner of Leading Edge. Click here to see that FAA document.

In an exclusive interview with NorthEscambia.com, Van Nevel suggested that the crash was caused by the weather, noting that a hurricane was approaching the area at the time of the crash, or by a phenomena called “mast bumping” where an improper maneuver by the pilot causes the rotor mast to break off the aircraft.

“They had decided that they wanted to challenge nature by flying in that storm,” Van Nevel said. “I had personally flown that aircraft for 25 hours. That aircraft was safe.”

“I did not know about the storm when they left here,” he said, referring to the time when the helicopter left Century. “I had been working a lot and did not know about the storm until I got home and turned on the TV. I was worried. I knew they should not fly through that weather. I got my girlfriend to call the pilot’s cellphone and tell him not to fly through that. She tried several times, but did not get him.”

“She left a message about the weather on his cellphone,” he said, his voice cracking from emotion. “I don’t know if they ever got that message. I was so worried about them.”

According to the National Weather Service, Tropical Storm Humberto was about 35 miles offshore south of Galveston, Texas, at the time of the crash. The weather service reported that at 7:00 on September 17, 2007, Humberto had top winds of 50 mph, and ran bands were coming onshore along the Texas Coast. The center of the storm, which would later become Hurricane Humberto, was about 250 miles from the crash site near Hosston, Louisiana. Tropical storm force winds extended out up to 60 miles from the storm’s center. Click here to see the advisory on Humberto from the National Weather Service.

Radar archives from the National Weather Service indicate that the rain bands from Humberto had not approached the Hosston area at the time of the crash. The radar image to the right shows the rain from Humberto about 30 minutes before the crash. The “X” in the white box was added to the National Weather Service archive image to indicate the approximate location of the FH1100 crash.

The official preliminary crash report from the NTSB as obtained by NorthEscambia.com reported the wind speed in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana, about 23 minutes after the crash to be four knots (about five miles per hour). Visibility was reported to be 10 miles under overcast skies, with the level of the overcast clouds to be 8,500 feet. There is no mention of rain in the report, nor does it mention whether or not there might have been wind gusts at the time from the approaching storm.

You can read the NTSB preliminary crash report obtained by NorthEscambia.com by clicking here.

The final report on what caused the crash has not been released by the NTSB, and is not expected for several more months. But Van Nevel said he does not believe any equipment fault will be found.

“I’ve been in aviation for 42 years,” he said. “I’ve never had an aircraft accident caused by faulty parts or faulty maintenance.” He said any accident he has been involved with has involved situations where the helicopter struck power lines, ran out of fuel or some other reason not related to parts or maintenance. “Aviation accidents are not usually caused by one thing,” he said. “They are caused by a combination of a number of things.”

“But the FAA wants to make me responsible for that crash (in Hosston),” he said.

Van Nevel bought the rights to the FH1100 from Hiller Aviation in 1999. That’s when his problems with the FAA began.

“I had parts that were stock at the time,” he said. “They met all of the FAA requirements and had been inspected by the FAA in 2002 and there was nothing wrong with them.”

The part numbers of existing parts were updated with a “V” in front of the existing numbers to indicate they were Van Nevel parts.

“All of the sudden, these same parts with the ‘V’ have no traceability and they were no good to the FAA,” he said. “They (the FAA) come in here with preconceived idea that you have to be in violation somewhere.”

“With the ‘V’ in front of the part number, the FAA says that is a different part,” Van Nevel said. “How ridiculous is that?”

He said he has been trying for 10 years to resolve issues with the FAA. He said he has gone through countless numbers of inspections, with the FAA finding nothing wrong with his parts, his records or his practices.

In 2004, Van Nevel said he recognized one of the FAA inspectors as a man that he had formerly defeated in a court case. Van Nevel said “He told me with a smile on his face that he was with the FAA now and he said ‘I will find a way to harass you’ to my face.” That inspector was later removed from the case, according to Van Nevel.

But Van Nevel says the FAA harassment continued.

He said many of the improvements to the FH1100 by his company were not required by the FAA, such as upgrading the seatbelts. One such improvement that he undertook has caused great problems for his company, including allegations of falsification of records.

Over the 40 plus year life of each FH1100, records and log books have been kept in multiple books in multiple formats. Van Nevel undertook a project to compile the information from those multiple sources into one single log book.

“I didn’t have to do those things,” he said. “And the more I tried to improve the system, the more problems I had.”

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He showed NorthEscambia.com a pile of old log books dating back to the 1960’s on one helicopter. Those log books are pictured in the right of the photograph above. The new, condensed log book is in the binder to the left of the photograph, with the information categorized and organized with color coded tabs.

“We tried to catch up 30 something years into one location,” he said. “The more I did this, the more I was accused of falsification of records. I just tried to condense the records into one place for better understanding.”

“I did not know what do to please them (the FAA). I was accused of crimes,” Van Nevel said. “But they couldn’t find anything wrong other than a few typos, a few oversights…all honest mistakes.”

More investigators came. “They thought they were coming to some shady operation,” he said. ” They didn’t expect to see what they saw. I comply with regulations. I have no interest in trying to not do the right thing.”

Van Nevel said there 258 FH1100 helicopters manufactured, with about 80 of them still in service around the world.

“I am concerned with the safety of these helicopters,” he said. “I don’t want an accident putting a blemish on the brand.”

Part of his plan includes the improvement of some parts.

“I had a brand new part for safety,” he said. “In October, the inspectors came and took a single part…not a sample of parts, but a single part…and the drawings of that part and spent a day and half making sure it met the design and flight standards.”

After that October visit, the FAA contacted a customer and examined the records of one helicopter that his company was ready to deliver. “They told him that the aircraft would never be certified and he had just bought a pile of scrap metal,” Van Nevel said.

After a while, Van Nevel said he became concerned “maybe I’m missing something here” and hired a consultant to help make sure he was meeting all of the FAA’s regulations. That consultant, he said, was a former “hard-nosed” FAA inspector.

“I wanted an in-depth analysis to make sure there was no error in our paperwork,” he said.

That consultant was in the office examining paperwork on January 8, Van Nevel said. Little did Van Nevel know that the following morning, his problems with the FAA would escalate to a much higher level. On that morning, a federal raid was about to happen with combat gear, a sniper in the woods and windows busted for an entry team. His building would be searched and records seized.

Join NorthEscambia.com Tuesday for the second installment of this three part series. We’ll take you to that January morning when the federal raid happened through Van Nevel’s eyes. And we’ll learn what he has to say about why the whole thing happened.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, NorthEscambia.com will look at the present and the future of Helicopter Technologies, Van Nevel and how all this relates to the Town of Century and the entire North Escambia area.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News