NEW YORK – A helicopter experience giving an exciting sweep of Manhattan’s iconic skyline has lengthy been on the to-do checklist for New York Metropolis vacationers of means.
For a number of hundred {dollars}, tour corporations fly passengers excessive above the rivers that encircle the town, showcasing a surprising, chicken’s-eye view of the Statue of Liberty, One World Commerce Middle and different monumental landmarks.
However Thursday’s crash that killed a household of 5 visiting from Spain and the helicopter’s pilot, a Navy SEAL veteran, has renewed considerations in regards to the security of the favored sightseeing excursions.
Since 2005, 5 helicopters on industrial sightseeing flights have fallen into the Hudson and East rivers because of mechanical failures, pilot errors or collisions, killing 20 people.
Longtime opponents have revived calls to ban or restrict “nonessential” helicopter flights, together with the roughly 30,000 sightseeing rides over the town every year.
Mayor towards extra restrictions
Mayor Eric Adams on Friday mentioned he doesn’t support additional restrictions on the plane, saying they’re essential for every little thing from transporting Wall Road executives to police work, and that tens of hundreds of vacationer flights occur every year with no issues.
“Individuals need to see the town from the sky,” he mentioned on WINS radio, although he added that “it have to be accomplished proper.”
The Democrat mentioned the town’s airspace is extremely regulated, pilots are well-trained and the plane are effectively maintained.
Not everybody has his degree of consolation.
“Personally, I don’t go on them,” Al Yurman, a former investigator with the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, mentioned of helicopter excursions. “I really feel just like the business doesn’t take care of itself the best way it ought to.”
Earlier crashes led to new guidelines
Vacationer flights appeared like they could be in jeopardy after a catastrophe in 2009, when a Liberty Helicopters sightseeing flight carrying Italian guests collided with a personal aircraft over the Hudson River, killing 9.
After that crash, which concerned missed radio communications, a distracted air site visitors controller and two pilots who did not see one another till it was too late, the Federal Aviation Administration created new security guidelines for the congested airspace over the town’s rivers.
A couple of years later, New York Metropolis minimize the variety of flights allowed at Manhattan’s downtown heliport in half, capping them at just below 30,000 a 12 months.
Then, in 2018, 5 folks died when a helicopter providing “open door” flights crashed in the East River after a passenger’s restraint tether snagged on a gasoline change, stopping the engine. The pilot escaped however the passengers could not get out of their security harnesses and drowned.
That crash prompted extra business scrutiny.
Late final month, the corporate that organized that flight, FlyNYON, settled a lawsuit over the crash for $90 million. FlyNYON’s chief govt, Patrick Day, mentioned it had made quite a few modifications to enhance security, together with altering its passenger restraint system, switching to a special mannequin of helicopter, including coaching for pilots and hiring a security officer.
“The introspection and self-critical evaluation now we have undertaken within the final six-and-a-half years have formed our view of what it means to be an business chief, and we’re a safer, smarter, and stronger firm for it,” Day mentioned.
Fewest crashes in 25 years
The cause of Thursday’s crash continues to be undetermined.
Movies taken by bystanders confirmed the Bell 206 helicopter breaking up mid-flight. The cabin plummeted into the water with out its severed tail growth or important rotor, which spun off into a special a part of the river and hasn’t been recovered.
Nationwide, there have been 88 helicopter accidents final 12 months throughout all sectors — the bottom in 25 years, based on Jeff Smith, chairman of the Jap Area Helicopter Council, a commerce group for helicopter operators primarily based in Kearny, New Jersey, the place many Manhattan tour corporations depart.
Helicopter excursions, he added, accounted for a small fraction of all these accidents.
“We shoot for imaginative and prescient zero, which suggests no fatalities,” Smith mentioned. “We prepare for that. We preach it. It’s a cornerstone of our business.”
Justin Inexperienced, an aviation lawyer and former Marine helicopter pilot, agreed there’s nothing particularly problematic about New York’s helicopter tour business, regardless of the crashes that appear to occur each few years.
On the identical time, he mentioned, tour operators must be required to equip their plane with fashionable security measures, comparable to terrain consciousness expertise.
Steve Cowell, a Colorado-based aviation professional, urged the FAA ought to take a extra energetic function in scrutinizing smaller operators with recognized monetary difficulties.
“Sadly, when folks fly, they oftentimes don’t test into the protection data or monetary viability of the corporate,” Cowell mentioned. “They’re inserting their belief and confidence within the talents of not solely the pilots however the maintainers.”
New York Helicopter, operator of the plane that crashed Thursday, had gone by a chapter and been sued twice by collectors in current months, an AP review found.
The corporate declined to reply questions, however launched an announcement saying it was “profoundly saddened” by the deaths of its passengers and pilot.
“The protection and well-being of our passengers and crew has at all times been the cornerstone of our operations,” it mentioned.
___
Comply with Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
