Ex-Navy pilot says NYC helicopter suffered catastrophic failure before crash
Low-flying tour helicopters hovering over the skies of New York City are a familiar sight, but they could soon be a thing of the past if one congresswoman gets her way.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she wants to rein in or even stop the flights altogether after six people tragically lost their lives in a tour helicopter on Thursday. It follows a fatal tour helicopter flight that crashed into the East River in 2018, killing five passengers.
Malliotakis said that the tour helicopters have long been a source of frustration for her Staten Island constituents and Thursday’s incident only deepens their unease, given the helicopters often fly over densely populated areas. The doomed sightseeing aircraft plummeted into the water near the New Jersey shoreline, just feet from land.
“Staten Island residents remain deeply concerned about the frequent low-flying tour helicopters whose flight paths continue to frequently pass over their neighborhoods at all hours of the day,” Malliotakis said in a statement.
SIEMENS EXECUTIVE, WIFE AND 3 KIDS ID’D AS HUDSON RIVER HELICOPTER CRASH VICTIMS
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she wants to rein in or even stop the tourist helicopter flights in New York City altogether. (Al Drago/Getty Images | New York Helicopter Tours, LLC)
“To prevent another tragedy, these tourist helicopter flights over NYC must be more heavily regulated and restricted, if not come to an end entirely,” she said, while sending her condolences to the families of the victims.
Malliotakis said she has raised the issue with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previously, as well as with the Biden administration. In October, she claimed that some operators were violating FAA rules by flying at low and potentially unsafe levels while the noise they created was infuriating residents. There is no evidence that the flight on Thursday violated any FAA rules.
Tour helicopters are very popular in New York City, especially among tourists looking for a unique aerial view of iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and Central Park. Tens of thousands of people take the tours every year.
The Spanish family pictured on board the helicopter before it crashed into the Hudson River in New York City on Thursday. (New York Helicopter Tours, LLC)
VIDEO APPEARS TO SHOW FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE HELICOPTER CRASHED INTO NYC’S EAST RIVER
Thursday’s tragedy unfolded at around 3:15 p.m., when a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV chopper being operated by New York Helicopter Tours came apart and plummeted into the Hudson River.
Eyewitness video shows the body of the aircraft tumbling through the air and into the water upside down near the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey. The aircraft’s main and rear rotor appeared to have been detached and could be seen splashing into the water.
A cause of the crash has yet to be determined, as the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed they are looking into the deadly incident.
The victims included five members of the same family: Agustin Escobar; his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal; and their three children. The 36-year-old pilot also lost his life.
The helicopter from Thursday’s crash is seen floating after it plunged into the Hudson River near Lower Manhattan. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
It wasn’t the first tour helicopter to crash in the city.
In 2018, a Eurocopter AS350 B2 operated by Liberty Helicopters for FlyNYON crashed into the East River, resulting in the deaths of all five passengers while the pilot miraculously survived.
The NTSB determined that a passenger’s harness tether inadvertently activated the fuel shutoff lever, leading to engine failure. The agency said that the water landing itself was survivable for the passengers, but the harness tether system prevented them from quickly escaping the ill-fated sinking aircraft.
