Deadly helicopter crash puts spotlight on busy NYC air, safety

The fatal helicopter crash that killed a family of five from Spain and the pilot when the aircraft apparently broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon has once again placed the issue of helicopter safety over the heavily trafficked skies near Manhattan into sharp focus.

"It is safe," said Keith M. Cianfrani, a retired Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot and aviation accident investigator. "There's thousands of flights going on all day every year, but things happen. Unfortunately, most of the mistakes are human error."

The areas along the Hudson and East rivers where commercial helicopter traffic is permitted in New York City is congested, but pilots are not required to file flight plans or communicate with air traffic controllers, according to Cianfrani, who said they're "busy enough" directing aircraft coming and going from the region's three major airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark. Cianfrani flew the same type of helicopter as an on-demand charter pilot in New York City for many years, including flights out to Long Island.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed the issue in an X post Thursday evening.

"The tour helicopter was in the Special Flight Rules Area established in New York which means no air traffic control services were being provided when the helicopter crashed," Duffy said. "Several minutes prior to entering the Special Flight Rules Area, Air Traffic Control from LaGuardia Airport was providing support."

The National Transportation Safety Board’s aviation accident database, which lists all civil aviation accidents in the United States from 1962 to present, shows two prior accidents involving New York Helicopter, the operator of the helicopter that crashed Thursday.

On May 20, 2015, a Bell 206L-3 helicopter, which was registered to Louisiana-based Meridian Helicopters LLC and operated by New York Helicopter, was "substantially damaged during a hard landing" in Kearny, New Jersey, according to an NTSB report. The helicopter was headed to the Wall Street Heliport in downtown Manhattan and had not filed a flight plan, the report said. The pilot onboard was not injured.

The report detailed that the aircraft had experienced a hard landing in 2010 in Chile.

The NTSB’s report listed the probable cause of the New Jersey hard landing to be maintenance failure.

"The deliberate concealment and reuse of an unworthy tail rotor driveshaft by unknown personnel, which resulted in an overstress separation at a bonded flange adapter as a result of driveshaft imbalance," the report said.

Two years earlier, a Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 206L-4 operated by New York City Helicopter Charter Inc., the same company, was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River after the aircraft experienced engine failure, the NTSB report said. The pilot "deployed skid-mounted floats," and neither the pilot nor the four passengers, who were on a sightseeing tour, were injured, the report said. The NTSB ultimately concluded that "improper maintenance" and an "engine oil lubrication system anomaly" were probable contributors to the crash, the report said.

The helicopter company’s website proclaims: "We have the experience and safety record you can trust. We love New York, and our pilots know it like the back of their hands. Your comfort and safety is our number one priority. We have an industry-leading safety record, and a long history of flying in this great city."

Each aircraft has a manufacturer-recommended inspection timeline that is regulated by the FAA, Cianfrani said.

The nation's commercial helicopter operators typically are required to have what's called a part 91 operating certificate, which refers to the federal regulations allowing aviation tour operations that take off and land at the same location.

On-demand charter operations need a part 135 operating certificate, which requires higher standards in pilot training and flying hours, he said.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, at a Friday news conference, said during the pilot's most recent medical examination last September, he reported 450 hours of total flight experience.

As of March 29, the pilot had accumulated a total of 788 hours of flight time, Homendy said, adding that investigators still needed to calculate the pilot's flight time "because he was previously flying a Robinson 44," referring to a type of commercially used helicopter.

The NTSB has estimated that approximately 80% of all aviation accidents are due to pilot error. Cianfrani said although it's too early to make any determinations about the cause of the craft, he said amateur video shot of the crash appeared to show the rotor heads falling from the helicopter.

"Normally, rotor heads do not fall off of aircrafts," he said, calling Thursday's crash "a catastrophic event."

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.