Scrutiny Ahead for Surplus Military Helos

Look for aviation regulators in the U.S., Europe, and Canada to take close looks at transactions that bring surplus military helicopters across international borders for use in civil operations. Regulators and manufacturers are concerned that surplus aircraft built specifically for military orders, such as Bell UH-1s and Eurocopter (nee, Aerospatiale, nee Sud-Est) Alouettes, are being sold to civilian operators even though the helicopters do not comply with civil type certificates. Such helicopters should fly only under rules for experimental aircraft in civil uses. FAA officials reportedly have found a number of cases in which paperwork and data plates for such aircraft appear to have been falsified. Manufacturers are considering developing lists of specific aircraft serial numbers covered by type certificates and sharing them only with regulators to make falsification harder.