Silver State's intent was to give their students a chance to gain experience while allowing current pilots opportunities to advance their careers.
Its corporate headquarters was 500 East Cheyenne Avenue in North Las Vegas, Nevada and had flight academies located in 34 cities around the United States.
Airola sold the company to New York investment house EOS Partners in 2007, creating Silver State Services Corp.
The plan was to give Silver State the opportunity to grow at an accelerated pace in the areas of flight training and other commercial operations.
[1][6] Silver State initially attracted students by running television advertising in major urban centres, inviting interested people to come to a recruiting seminar and promising an "exciting career flying helicopters".
The company Vice President of training operations, Randy Rowles, explained that management informed him that "We only want about 20 percent of these people to finish."
[11] In mid-February 2008 former Silver State students and their attorneys announced that they were planning class-action lawsuits against the company and its owner Jerry Airola.
The Pinnacle suit also alleged that the bank "intentionally omitted" federally required consumer protection clauses in the loan documents.
[14] On 23 May 2008 US Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) called for a Federal Trade Commission investigation of Silver State, indicating that he believes that it was a Ponzi scheme.
"[17]Writing in Rotor and Wing magazine in March 2009, Ernie Stephens concluded: It’s been a little more than a year since Silver State Helicopters (SSH) abruptly shut its doors on Feb. 3, 2008 and went out of business.
[19] In the Phoenix case, 18 plaintiffs were demanding a US$5 million minimum, not including attorney fees, for their failed promises by Silver State training schools in Arizona.
[19] Mischel and other plaintiffs claim that the school they attended did not have adequate helicopters, simulators and instructors to teach a class with 78 students.
[19] In a June 2006 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in San Diego, 21 plaintiffs claimed Airola often made promises he didn't keep.
The $112.7 million agreement involved 12 states; California, Nevada, Utah, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.
[22] Silver State Helicopters fleet at time of bankruptcy:[23] Helicopters: Fixed wing On March 27, 2007 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a R-44 Raven II from Silver State at Craig Municipal Airport suffered a mechanical failure which led to loss of directional control.
[24] The loss of control led to a fatal crash of the aircraft, which took the lives of the instructor Tamara Williams and student pilot Juston Wyatt Duncan, 24.
[25] On February 6, 2006 in Helena, Montana, a Silver State R-44 N7085U was intentionally crashed by its commercial helicopter instructor pilot in a successful attempt to commit suicide.
[26] On September 20, 2005 in Baker, California, a Silver State R-22 Beta N957SH crashed during a positioning flight of new helicopters to their respective destinations.
The accident pilot flew into adverse weather conditions which included rain, low clouds, lightning and moderate turbulence.