From there, a chartered helicopter would ferry us to the gates of the White Sands Proving Ground.

"The meteorite is inside the chartered helicopter," Cabrillo said.

"Current intelligence streams, concurrent with our own threat analysis, is leading us in this direction," the homeland security official said of the threat to chartered helicopters.

The possible use of chartered helicopters in a terrorist attack has also attracted fresh scrutiny from the F.B.I., officials said.

Pitt spent the next two days in a chartered helicopter, crisscrossing the mountains in ever-widening search-grid patterns.

This afternoon, the safety board's investigators boarded a chartered helicopter and searched from the air without success for the crucial missing part of the plane.

The electrifying news that rattled the family group arrived by way of a breathless "runner" who was brought to the villa in a chartered helicopter.

They also saved the life of a pregnant tribe member who was hemorrhaging by airlifting her to medical aid in their chartered helicopter.

Thirty minutes later he was glancing out the side window of the chartered helicopter as it raced across Block Island Sound.

Federal regulations require chartered helicopters that are flown over the water to have flotation devices.