Airworthiness Directives; Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Limited Helicopters
We are publishing a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Limited (Bell) Model 206L, 206L-1, 206L-3, and 206L-4 helicopters with certain main rotor blades installed to reduce the life limit of those blades. This AD is prompted by two accidents and the subsequent investigations that revealed that, in each accident, a main rotor blade failed because of fatigue cracking. These actions are intended to prevent failure of the main rotor blade and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter.