New York – A tourist helicopter from New York City separated in the air on Thursday and crashed backwards in the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists in the last American aviation disaster, authorities said.
Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began in a Heliport in the center of 3 pm and the dead, including three children, had been recovered and removed from water. The flight to the north along the Manhattan horizon and after returning south to the statue of freedom lasted less than 18 minutes.
The accident video showed that parts of the plane fell through the air to the water near the coast of Jersey City, New Jersey. A witness there, Bruce Wall, said he saw him “crumble” in the air, with the tail and the propeller coming out. The propeller still turned without the helicopter when it fell.
Dani Horbiak was at his home in Jersey City when he heard what sounded like “several shots in a row, almost, in the air.” He looked out of his window and saw the helicopter “splash in several pieces in the river.”
The helicopter revolved without control with “a lot of smoke that came out” before he crashed into the water, said Lesly Camacho, a host in a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The rescue boats surrounded the plane submerged within a few minutes of the impact near the end of a long maintenance spring for a ventilation tower that serves the Holland tunnel. The recovery equipment raised the water shattered helicopter just after 8 pm using a floating crane.
The flight was operated by New York helicopters, authorities said. No one responded to the phones in the company’s offices in New York and New Jersey.
A person who answered the phone at the company’s owner’s house, Michael Roth, declined to comment. Roth told the New York Post that he was devastated and that “he had no idea” why the accident occurred.
“The only thing I know when you see a video of the helicopter falling, that the main rotor blades were not in the helicopter,” said the publication. He added that he had not seen such a thing happened during his 30 years in the helicopter business, but said: “These are machines and break.”
Electronic emails were sent that they were looking for comments to lawyers who have represented Roth in the past.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, even by tourist companies, television and police news stations. Initially it was developed for the US Army. Uu. Before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.
The National Transport Security Board said it would investigate.
The accident video suggested that a “catastrophic mechanical failure” left the pilot without the possibility of saving the helicopter, he said Justin GreenAn aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in Marines.
It is possible that the main rotors of the helicopter hit the tail pen, breaking it and causing the cabin to fall, Green said.
“They were dead as soon as what happened,” Green said. “There are no indications that they have any control over the ship. No pilot could have avoided that accident once they lost the elevators. It is like a rock that falls to the ground. It is heartbreaking.”
The skies on Manhattan are routinely full of airplanes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipuertos, of which business executives and others are taken to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.
At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents In New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter on the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five died in 2018 when a charter helicopter that offered “open door” flights fell to the East River.
New York helicopters also had a Bell 206 that lost power and made a emergency landing at the Hudson During a tourism tour in June 2013. The pilot managed to land safely, and he and the passengers, a family of four Swedes, were not injured. He National Transportation Security Board found that a maintenance flub and an engine lubrication anomaly led to the power cut.
Thursday’s accident was the first for a helicopter in the city since one hit the roof of a skyscraper in 2019, killing the pilot.
Accidents, and the noise caused by helicopters, have repeatedly led some community activists and officials to propose to prohibit or restrict traffic in Manhattan Heliports.
Other recent accidents and nearby calls have already left some people Concerned about the security of flying In the United States
Seven people They were killed when a medical transport plane collapsed in a neighborhood in Philadelphia in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an army helicopter collided in the air in Washington in the MORE MORE MORE American Air Disaster In a generation.
