Steven Metheny, former vice president of Carson Helicopter Services, on November 24 pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court to making a false statement and to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Metheny admitted that in 2008 he falsified weight-and-balance records submitted to a USFS proposal for a $20 million firefighting contract. Metheny came under scrutiny in February 2008 after the crash of a Carson Sikorsky S-61N in northern California that killed nine people and seriously injured four more. Carson’s former director of maintenance, Levi Phillips, pleaded guilty in September 2013.