Bell Helicopter Drives Industry Focus on Safety Through New Safety Symposiums

New Delhi, India - - Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company (NYSE: TXT), announced it is holding its first regional safety symposium for rotorcraft pilots and technicians from across India.

A new initiative for Bell Helicopter in 2013, the safety symposium educates maintainers and operators on key safety practices and applications to implement into their daily operations. The effort is tied in part to Bell Helicopter’s participation in the International Helicopter Safety Team’s mission to achieve an 80 percent reduction in the rate of international civil helicopter accidents by 2016.

“Bell Helicopter has a very aggressive internal safety campaign founded on best-in-class practices and encouraging personal responsibility,” said Eric Cardinali, executive vice president, Customer Support and Services (CSS). “Sharing these tools with our customers is a natural extension of our safety focus and provides our customers an avenue to further their own safety culture and behaviors.”

Initiated at the customers’ request, the safety symposium is led by experienced instructors from the Bell Helicopter Training Academy. The full day session will cover a variety of topics, including human factors, environmental factors, procedural complacency, human physiology and building a safety culture. Through interactive discussions, case studies and presentations, participants will gain a greater awareness of the personal and cultural changes necessary to adopt a safety culture and will be equipped with a “toolkit” of safety practices to help drive such a culture at their own facilities.

More than 80 participants from 25 organizations within India have registered to attend the event.

“The growth of Bell Helicopter’s customer base in India, coupled with the region’s environmental conditions, make India a prime location for hosting this inaugural event,” said B.S. Shingh Deo, managing director, Business Development at Bell Helicopter India. “The climate in India is such that our customers often operate in hot and high conditions or extreme temperatures. The information and tools we provide them will help them to more safely manage their crews and their aircraft fleet.”

About Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc., is an industry-leading producer of commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical-lift aircraft and the pioneer of the revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft. Globally recognized for world-class customer service, innovation and superior quality, Bell’s global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in more than 120 countries.

About Textron Inc.
Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft Company, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, and Textron Systems. More information is available at www.textron.com.