A helicopter that crashed into a river after breaking apart mid-air, killing six people on board, including a family of tourists, had mechanical issues months before the fatal incident. The Bell206L-4 LongRanger IV aircraft which crashed into the Hudson River after breaking apart mid-air and dropping from the sky, experienced a mechanical issue last September, it has been claimed.
The helicopter, owned and oeprated by New York Helicopter, had an issue with its transmission assembly, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The aircraft, built in 2004, had already logged 12,728 hours of flight time when it needed repair, records show.
An investigation has been launched to try and determine what caused the chopper to drop out of the sky and plummet into the water below. On board the doomed flight was AgustÃn Escobar, president and CEO of Siemens Spain, with his wife, Mercè Camprubà Montal, and three children, Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4, who were taking part in a sightseeing trip over the Big Apple at the time of the tragedy.
The five family members were declared dead following the horror crash on Thursday, which is one of the deadliest helicopter crashes in New York City in almost 20 years. It is believed the family arrived in New York City earlier on Thursday, making the sightseeing trip by air one of their first priorities.
The investigation into the crash will look into the pilot’s experience, as well as combing through the still-incomplete wreckage and investigating the company that runs the tours. Maintenance work carried out on the aircraft will also be reviewed, include two recent safety airworthiness directives issued by the FAA on Bell 206L helicopters.
The first directive was issued in December 2022, calling for the inspection and potential replacement of the main roto blades on the model due to “delamination” – where internal layers of the blade separate due to material fatigue, damage or other defects. If not fixed, the problem could potentially lead to the rotor blade failing.
A second directive was issued in May 2023, requiring eight models to have tail rotor shafts tested and possibly replaced, with the model involved in the deadly wreck included. That directive was issued after a helicopter lost a tail-rotor drive due to a joint failure.
National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy said the rotors for the helicopter were still missing on Friday. Divers from the New York City Police Department are still desperately searching for several pieces of the destroyed aircraft.
Following the tragedy, CEO of New York Helicopters, Michael Roth, said: “I’m absolutely devastated. The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter. And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business.”
Witnesses say they saw the helicopter “split in half” before it went down near Pier 40. One man even reported the aircraft making what sounded like a “sonic boom”. The flight took off from Manhattan’s Downtown Skyport at around 1.50pm on Thursday. The family, from Barcelona, were being flown by Sean Johnson, 36, a Navy SEAL veteran who recently moved to New York City for his aviation career.
Ms Homendy confirmed the helicopter crashed just 25 minutes into the tour. Following the disaster, President Donald Trump offered condolences to the victims’ families and friends. In his message on Truth Social, Mr Trump described the horror as a “terrible helicopter crash” and he said that the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and his staff were investigating it. The world leader, 78, also stressed “announcements as to exactly what took place, and how, will be made shortly.”
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