a ne w Chap ter Erickson Inc. became one of the most high profile casualties of the commercial helicopter industry’s global downturn, but after emerging from a six-month-long bankruptcy process, it appointed a new CEO with a fresh outlook. So what’s in store for the company affectionately known as “Big Orange”? By Oliver Johnson // Photos by Heath Moffatt 50 Vertical magazine It’s been an eventful 12 months at Erickson Inc. — the famed man- ufacturer of the S-64 Aircrane, operator of the largest S-64 feet in the world, and vastly experienced maintenance, repair, and overhaul provider. In April 2017, the Portland, Oregon-based company drew a line under the most traumatic period in its almost 50-year history, as it formally exited a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. Within a week, it then lost its president and CEO. Yet today, restructured and with a new CEO at the helm, the future looks a lot brighter for the company — and its enormous variety of customers around the world. When Vertical last visited Erickson Inc. in October 2014, it was a very different company. At the time, it appeared to be riding high on a wave of growth, following its acquisitions of Evergreen Helicopters and Air Amazonia in 2013. These moves essentially transformed Erickson overnight, taking it from about 700 employees and a fleet of 20 Aircranes, to 1,150 staff and a mixed fleet of 86 rotary- and fixed- wing aircraft, and moving it into new markets, such as disaster relief and military logistics, as well as onshore and offshore oil-and-gas. However, the acquisitions also saddled the company with a huge debt burden — and this became a major problem as the industry entered a period of unprecedented operational headwinds. The Evergreen purchase also drew close scrutiny from regulatory agen- cies — and the company’s shareholders. It ultimately became the subject of a shareholders’ class-action lawsuit, alleging a breach of fiduciary duty, which was settled in June 2016 with an $18.5 million payment from Erickson and the private equity company that controlled it.