Federal investigators say the sightseeing helicopter carrying a pilot and household of 5 visiting from Spain that crashed into the Hudson River final week was not outfitted with any recording gadgets.
In a written assertion launched over the weekend, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned, “No onboard video recorders or camera recorders have been recovered and none of the helicopter avionics onboard recorded information that could be used for the investigation.”
Divers from the NYPD continued their search into Sunday for the helicopter’s major rotor, major gear field, tail rotor and enormous portion of the tail growth, in accordance with the NTSB. Since Thursday’s crash, the primary fuselage, together with the cockpit and cabin, in addition to the ahead portion of the tail growth and have been recovered from the river.
The Bell 206 L-4 helicopter flown by New York Helicopter Constitution Inc., had obtained a “major inspection” again on March 1, the NTSB mentioned. The chopper was in the course of its eighth flight of the day on the time of the crash.
NTSB
NTSB
NTSB group surveying the wreckage recovered from the Bell 206 L-4 helicopter that crashed into Hudson River on April 10 close to Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey.
The helicopter took off from a downtown heliport at round 3 p.m. and flew north alongside the Manhattan skyline earlier than heading south towards the Statue of Liberty. Lower than 18 minutes into the flight, components of the plane have been seen tumbling into the water.
Witnesses described seeing the helicopter’s tail and major rotor breaking away and smoke pouring from the spinning chopper earlier than it slammed into the water.
Michael Roth, who owns the helicopter firm, New York Helicopter, instructed The New York Submit that he does not know what went mistaken with the plane.
“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,” he mentioned, noting that he had by no means seen such a factor occur in his 30 years within the enterprise, however that, “These are machines, and they break.”
The victims included passengers Agustin Escobar, 49, his spouse, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39, and their three kids, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10. Mercedes would have turned 9 on Friday, officers mentioned.
The pilot was Seankese Johnson, 36, a U.S. Navy veteran who obtained his business pilot’s license in 2023. He had logged about 800 hours of flight time as of March, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, instructed reporters Friday.
The Hudson crash is bringing contemporary scrutiny to the protection of personal helicopter flights round New York Metropolis. NBC New York’s Andrew Siff reviews.
“One of many issues we are able to do to honor these lives is to attempt to save others, as a result of if there may be one factor we all know for certain about New York Metropolis’s helicopter tour corporations: they’ve a lethal monitor file, and it’s often the businesses—not the pilots—which can be overtly manipulating federal FAA guidelines, reducing corners and placing income over folks,” the New York Democrat mentioned.
