East River chopper crash claims 2nd victim

A second passenger on the helicopter that plunged into the East River last week has died, a Bellevue Medical Center spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Helen Tamaki, 43, of suburban Sydney, Australia, died Tuesday evening, the spokeswoman said. Tamaki's partner, Sonia Marra, 40, was killed in the Oct. 4 crash, which remains the subject of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

The two had come to New York City on a vacation trip with Marra's mother and stepfather, who also were injured in the crash near the East 34th Street heliport.

News of Tamaki's death came the same day that the NTSB's preliminary report on the accident said the helicopter had undergone its annual inspection just two days before the crash.

The safety board did not reach conclusions about the cause of the crash, and a final report will not be issued for several months.

The report provided little information beyond what NTSB officials revealed in the days after the crash, but it did clear up a few details.

It said for the first time that a section of the Bell 2106B's main rotor broke off on impact with the water, ending speculation that the rotor might have come off earlier and contributed to the crash.

The report gave no details about the annual inspection on Oct. 2. But an attorney for pilot Paul Dudley, of Southampton, had told Newsday shortly after the crash that Dudley had told him the craft had been inspected by a certified aircraft mechanic and had been cleared to fly.

Dudley had flown from Linden, N.J., to the heliport earlier that day without incident.

Shortly after the helicopter picked up its four passengers and climbed in a northeasterly direction to an altitude of about 30 feet to 50 feet over the water, Dudley "experienced a problem which included a small left yaw," the NTSB report said.

A yaw essentially is the movement of the nose to one side.

Dudley turned right "to attempt to return and land at the heliport, but the helicopter became uncontrolled and impacted the water," the report said.

Dudley told NTSB investigators during one of the two interviews that he considered turning left, but feared that would take him over the densely populated East Side of Manhattan.

The report also said that during impact "three-fourths of one main rotor blade separated and was not recovered from the river. The remainder of the helicopter was recovered and transported to a hangar for examination. The engine was retained for a subsequent examination."

Paul Nicholson, 71, of Portugal, survived the crash, but his wife, Harriet Nicholson, and Tamaki were injured. Marra was Harriet Nicholson's daughter.

With Gary Dymski