Bell OH-58A
N497E is a Bell OH-58A, a rotorcraft with turboshaft engines (a helicopter or multicopter). It has 4 seats. It is registered to Kern County Sheriffs Department, a government body in Bakersfield, California. The registration is valid: it was issued on July 24, 1997 and expires on October 31, 2027. No airworthiness certificate is on file, which is normal for drones and for aircraft still being built or tested.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Bell
- Model
- OH-58A · all OH-58As and related versions
- Serial number
- 69-16375
- Type
- Rotorcraft
- Power
- Turboshaft, 1 motor
- Seats
- 4
- Year built
- Not given
- Cruising speed
- 112 mph
- Transponder code
- A62A7D (octal 51425175)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- July 24, 1997
- Expires
- October 31, 2027
- Last FAA action
- March 24, 2023
- Airworthiness
- None on file
- FAA region
- Western-Pacific
- FAA record id
- 00246651
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Kern County Sheriffs Department
- Type
- Government
- Address
- 1350 Norris Rd
Bakersfield, CA 93308-2231
Owners can ask the FAA to withhold their name and address from public files. When they do, those fields are blank here as well. How that works.
Documents on file 0
No bills of sale, loans or other documents are indexed against this tail number.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N497E, read the way a buyer, lender or insurer reads it: FAA registration, prior tail numbers keyed on the serial number, reuse of the tail number, recent registry filings, and the NTSB accident record under this and every earlier registration.
Valid registration to Kern County Sheriffs Department, a government body, certificate issued July 24, 1997, expires October 31, 2027. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
No airworthiness certificate is on file. Usual for a newly registered aircraft, a project, or an aircraft that has not flown since a change of registration; ask for the certificate. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 69-16375 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N497E according to the deregistered file. [2]
No bills of sale, loans or releases have reached the registry in recent weeks. The index covers only recent filings; older liens are in the records file. [3]
1 NTSB record under N497E: Accident on March 27, 2014 at Tehachapi, CA: no injuries, substantial damage. Details below. [4]
These live in the FAA aircraft records file (every document ever filed against the aircraft) and, for larger aircraft, the International Registry. Part of the full report.
AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.
NTSB records 1
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Bell OH-58A · operated under PUBU
The pilot's decision to attempt a mission at night with known en route weather conditions below operating minimums, likely due to self-induced pressure, and then continue flight beyond the alternate landing airport as weather conditions deteriorated, which resulted in the pilot experiencing spatial disorientation. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's fatigue, his failure to recognize that mist had formed on the inner surface of the windshield, his complacency due to the effectiveness of the night vision goggles, and his failure to use the radar altimeter.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for WPR14TA149 for the docket and final report. Open CAROL
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through August 27, 2026. data.ntsb.gov/carol-main-public/basic-search
This automated check reads the public federal record. Nothing here is a legal opinion, an appraisal or a statement about the aircraft's condition; a CLEAR line is a statement about the searched record, not the aircraft.
Source: FAA Civil Aviation Registry, Releasable Aircraft Database, October 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data