The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the company involved in the deadly crash into the Hudson River has shut down its operations.
The FAA wrote on X:
New York Helicopter Tours — the company involved in the deadly crash on the Hudson earlier this week — is shutting down their operations immediately.We will continue to support @NTSB’s investigation. Additionally, the FAA will be launching an immediate review of the tour operator’s license and safety record.Lastly on the topic of helicopter safety broadly: The FAA is already analyzing airplane/helicopter hotspots nationwide, and we will be hosting a helicopter safety panel on April 22 to discuss the findings, risks, and additional mitigation options.Safety is the FAA’s number one priority, and we will not hesitate to act to protect the flying public.
Six people, a family of five and the pilot, died when the helicopter crashed into the Hudson River last Thursday.
The victims were from Spain on vacation: Siemens senior executive Agustin Escobar, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children.
The pilot was Seankese Johnson.
The flight was the helicopter’s sixth flight of the day. CBS News reported “that for at least the last week, the helicopter has traveled to and from airports and heliports in our area, with multiple flights per day.”
Witness Dani Horbiak told ABC News, “I heard five or six loud noises that sounded almost like gunshots in the sky and saw pieces fall off, then watched it fall into the river.”
The video showed the helicopter fell “without a tail rotor or a main rotor blade.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the FAA to suspend the company’s helicopter tours.
“There is one thing for sure about New York City’s helicopter tour companies: they have a deadly track record,” Schumer said at a press conference on Sunday. “I am urging the FAA to pull their operating certificate immediately and cease flights until their full investigation is complete.”
In the last eight years, the New York Helicopter has been through a bankruptcy and faces ongoing lawsuits over alleged debts. Phones rang unanswered at the company’s offices Friday.In 2013, one of the company’s helicopters suddenly lost power in midair, and the pilot maneuvered it to a safe landing on pontoons in the Hudson. FAA data shows the helicopter that crashed Thursday was built in 2004.According to FAA records, the helicopter had a maintenance issue last September involving its transmission assembly. The helicopter had logged 12,728 total flight hours at the time, according to the records.
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