E-Paper
Touring company in Hudson River crash had a history of mechanical issues
In total, six lives were lost in the Hudson River crash, raising serious questions about helicopter safety.
New York Helicopter Tours, the company at the centre of Thursday’s deadly crash in the Hudson River — which killed all six people on board — has a prior chopper crash-land history that raises serious questions about its safety record.
Known for flying sightseeing and private tours around New York City, the New York Helicopter Tours's helicopters crashed shortly after takeoff in northern New Jersey in 2015.
The pilot said the chopper began spinning uncontrollably while hovering just 20 feet above the ground. He managed to bring it down with a “hard landing,” avoiding fatalities, but the situation could have been far worse.
ALSO READ| Hudson River crash: Helicopter was running out of fuel, was going to land in 3 minutes
Hudson River wasn’t the company’s only brush with danger
The helicopter had been in a similar accident years earlier—in Chile in 2010. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the drive shaftwas “unairworthy.” Even more alarming, it appeared to be an improper replacement part that should never have been used on the aircraft.
In 2013, another one of New York Helicopter Tours' helicopters made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, near Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The aircraft lost power mid-flight during a sightseeing trip carrying a family of four. Thankfully, that incident ended without injuries.
Despite these, the touring company continued operating in the same high-traffic airspace over and around the city.
“Having previously represented the families of Italian tourists killed during a helicopter tour over the Hudson River, my heart goes out to the families at this catastrophic time. As we have learned during that and other helicopter crash investigations, it is too soon to draw conclusions,” former Air Force Navigator Jim Brauchle told HindustanTimes.com in a statement.
“However, from the footage, it appears that the main rotor struck the body of the helicopter, cutting off the tail of the helicopter, which created an unrecoverable event. The two main causes of this phenomenon are mechanical failure or excessive maneuvering. Still, a full investigation is needed to understand why this tragedy occurred.”
