What to KnowNational Transportation Security Board officers are anticipated to handle the media in New Jersey as they start the official federal investigation of the NYC sightseeing helicopter crash that killed 5 Spaniard vacationers and a pilot.Aviation specialists say a helicopter just like the one concerned within the crash could not have had a so-called black field, a flight recorder machine used to assist investigators of their investigation.New York Helicopter Excursions, the corporate concerned within the crash, has been concerned in two different chopper incidents, with the newest relationship to 2015.
Nationwide Transportation Security Board officers arrived in New York Metropolis to start the official federal investigation of the New York Metropolis sightseeing helicopter that broke aside in midair on Thursday and crashed into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a household of 5.
Whereas the investigation was nonetheless within the early phases as NTSB officers addressed the media on Friday, investigators will take a look at every bit of data, from climate situations, to electronics, radar of the flight path to previous upkeep data.
A black field, which is the a flight recorder machine usually used to assist reconstruct the occasions of an aviation incident, could not have been used within the helicopter operated by New York Helicopter Excursions, aviation specialists say.
Footage from contained in the cabin of the chopper with tail quantity N216MH exhibits what was like inside because the household of 5 and the pilot went for the sightseeing journey of the New York Metropolis skyline.
In response to police, the chopper took off from the Wall Avenue heliport at 2:59 p.m. on Tuesday, circling close to the Statue of Liberty and the George Washington Bridge. Subsequently, the helicopter circled south, flying on the New Jersey facet of the Hudson River when at round 3:17 p.m. 9-1-1 calls reported a chopper crash close to the Holland Tunnel.
Thursday’s crash will not be the primary aviation incident for the sightseeing firm.
Information from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board present New York Helicopter Excursions had two previous incidents involving helicopter crashes.
In June 2013, a helicopter carrying a Swedish household made an emergency touchdown within the Hudson River after the chopper misplaced energy shortly after takeoff. The pilot, together with two adults and two kids, have been safely pulled out of the submerged chopper.
Two years later, in Could 2015, a Bell 206L-3 New York Helicopter chopper was “substantially damaged” throughout a tough touchdown in Kearny, New Jersey, leaving the pilot injured. The next investigation from the NTSB discovered that the there was a deliberate concealment and reuse of an “unairworthy” tail rotor driveshaft by unknown personnel.
Since 1977, at the least 37 folks have died in helicopter crashes in New York Metropolis, when an accident on a skyscraper touchdown pad led to restrictions on the place choppers might land.
In 2019, two crashes occurred inside a month. A pilot was killed on June 10, 2019 after hitting the roof of a skyscraper amid poor climate situations. The helicopter struck the 750-foot AXA Equitable constructing, sparking a hearth that pressured workplace employees to flee.
Simply weeks previous to that incident, on Could 15, a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River and sank, however the pilot managed to securely escape.
