Two crash landings in twelve years: the history of the company behind the crashed flight in New York
The crashed helicopter was leased to a Louisiana company that had previously leased a defective aircraft.
BarcelonaNew York Helicopter Charter, the company that operated the helicopter tour that killed five members of a Catalan family and the pilot after the plane crashed into the Hudson River, is at the center of the investigation that has been launched following the tragedy. The company has a long history of flying tours around New York City, some of which have suffered safety issues. The company's chief executive, Michael Roth, said in the statement:New York Timesthat he doesn't know what happened to the helicopter, a device he had rented from a Louisiana company. However, the same American newspaper points out in an article This is not the first time that helicopters operated by New York Helicopter Charter have failed in the last twelve years.
The newspaper explains that the company, with a long tradition of aerial excursions around New York, had already experienced at least two recent technical failures. The first, in 2013, when a helicopter that was making a tour Carrying a family of four, who were Swedish tourists, the plane suddenly lost power and had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. The passengers went to a hospital, but no one was seriously injured.
About two years later, another New York Helicopter Charter aircraft crashed from an altitude of about 6 meters after takeoff in northern New Jersey. In this second accident, according to the New York TimesThe pilot reported that the aircraft had begun spinning uncontrollably before he decided to force land. A subsequent investigation revealed that the helicopter had previously been involved in a similar incident in Chile in 2010 and that a driveshaft had been installed that rendered it unfit for flight, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Investigators concluded that the probable cause of the crash was "the deliberate concealment and reuse" of the defective component "by unknown personnel." The operator accused the maintenance company, Aircraft Maintenance Specialists, of negligence in repairing the helicopter and of failing to prevent the mechanical problems that led to the emergency landing. This case, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, was closed in 2018 without a clear conclusion.
The helicopter involved in this accident was a Bell 206 model that New York Helicopter Charter leased from Meridian Helicopters, the Louisiana company that owns the helicopter that crashed Thursday in the Hudson River, as confirmed by the newspaper's executive director in the article. The newspaper cites court records suggesting that New York Helicopter Charter had recently faced financial difficulties. In 2019, in fact, it had filed for bankruptcy, claiming that its business was harmed by changes in New York City's air traffic policies.
More than 60,000 "non-essential" flights
Helicopters are frequently flown in Manhattan airspace, providing sightseeing tours of areas of interest. Now, the accident with Catalan victims, the deadliest in the last seven years, has reopened the debate about the dangers of helicopter flights in the city where at least 32 people have died in helicopter accidents over the last 50 years. The last time the city experienced such a deadly accident was in 2018, when an aircraft crashed into the East River, killing all five passengers on board, except for the crew. The plane was on a private flight with the door open to allow photographs of the city skyline.
This Friday, several New York City nonprofits and politicians called for a ban on non-essential helicopter flights over the city, which average 80,000 trips annually. The Stop the Chop organization explained to Efe that there are 60,000 non-essential helicopter flights departing from New York each year and that, if we take into account the flights that fly over the Big Apple but depart from Jersey City (on the other side of the Hudson River), "there are about 80,000 flights."
Non-essential flights are usually for tourism or to travel from airports near Manhattan to The Hamptons (New York's beach area) or Atlantic City (New Jersey). The president of the organization's board of directors, Melissa Elstein, highlights that this type of transport is increasingly popular as the so-called air taxis like Blade. "They're too polluting. They waste a lot of fuel. They increase particulate matter in the atmosphere and are excessively noisy, which also represents a health risk and a concern for quality of life," he adds.
This Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams ruled out banning tourist helicopters, although he did say in statements to Fox that what the city should do is ensure that these flights are safe.
Six more trips
Before crashing, the helicopter had made six trips this Thursday, following a route virtually identical to the fatal one. Aniol Jódar, helicopter pilot and podcast author The formula for liftJódar states that this type of aircraft is designed for operations like this: short flights with short takeoffs and landings. He does specify that the helicopters flying over Barcelona have two engines, whereas the one involved in the accident only had one. However, based on the videos that have been published, he believes it is unlikely that the engine was responsible for the failure, but rather points to key elements, such as the rotors, which would have separated from the structure. Jódar adds that a helicopter pilot maintains much more "manual" control than an airplane. He concludes that a helicopter is a safe means of transport, but that the smaller the aircraft, the fewer layers of safety it has.