Posted on 03/11/2018 5:23:01 PM PDT by Enchante
A tourist helicopter plunged into the East River on Sunday night, leaving at least five people trapped inside the sinking vessel while the pilot scrambled to safety, police sources said.
The Eurocopter AS350 went down around 88th Street, near Gracie Mansion, at about 7:15 p.m., sources said.
The pilot was able to get out and climb aboard a raft — but five others remained trapped inside the upside-down helicopter, according to sources.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Well it already has cost some lives, and money has yet to resurrect anyone.
RIP to the victims.
I worked offshore for a number of years and we flew to work in a chopper. As part of our training, we are strapped I to a mock up helicopter and submerged into water, and when the cabin fills, the cab is rotated upside down. We were trained that when the movement stops, to unbuckle, press out the window as they are removable and double as emergency egress, and swim to the surface. It’s a VERY disorienting experience and it would be all but impossible to save anyone but yourself in that situation.
Your nose and sinuses fill with water. The pressure fills your skull. You’re scared and cold. You’re pushing on a window that need about 70 pounds of force to dislodge. You can’t breathe or see and you’re frantically trying to exit the bird.
Im certified to do so. It sucks. Now imagine it happening in an environment that is not controlled and with no life guards present. I would bet anything there’s nothing the pilot could do, and I won’t judge him
So it is your contention that floats add nothing to the safety of a flopper flying day in and day out over water?
That imagining the result with floats is off the wall?
Pilots spend hours going over accidents trying to determine how they could have been avoided.
Maybe floats would not have made a difference here, but I would bet the pilot of that machine would beg for them.
No offense taken!
I’ve done this sort of training before. Submerged in a pool buckled into a chopper fuselage while it rotates upside down. You instantly lose your bearings and have difficulty even finding the escape hatch open lever that is right next to you. Unless you prepare by having physical reference points (like we were trained) then it’s very very difficult to escape. And if you unbuckle in a panic before the chopper stops moving then you float out of your seat and it’s even harder to find the escape hatch.
I can, several times. *sigh*
“The pilot was able to get out and climb aboard a raft — “
A Broward County deputy?
“Many people can’t find their bathroom door in the middle of the night.”
Shut up.
No, just a very very lucky guy who had some training and experience.
“A tourist helicopter plunged into the East River on Sunday night, ,,”
Not even in my drunkest moment would I be in NYC much less in a helicopter over NYC. That’s for stupid European tourists.
“A Broward County deputy?”
Time to retire that little joke.
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Yeah it’s an insane way to fly because it’s completely dependent on the engine and if that engine messes up you end up basically being in a car that’s high in the air which ain’t going to work out too well.
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In the right circumstances , you can disengage the main rotor from the engine and autorotate the helicopter into a landing.
Probably not...it’s just started. If not me then someone else.
“If not me then someone else.”
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Yeah,you are probably right. (sigh!)
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“What was he suppose to do ?”
Not crash.
Good description. There probably wasn’t anything the pilot could do, but maybe the company needs to give people better instructions. I know they’re reluctant to call attention to the fact that there’s a risk with helicopters.
They fly around all the time in NYC with few accidents, but the problem is that when something does happen (and in NY, it’s virtually always something involving one of the rivers) the passengers aren’t prepared to deal with it.
We have a winna, thread’s over...
“I flew with a guy that had “Kill” painted on the back of his helmet and he had a big burn scar on the lower part of his face. He’d go right down on the tree tops and stay there for 15 minutes at probably 160mph. I found it fascinating. I really like choppers. The only problem is they don’t glide into a landing too well. At real low altitude and higher speed, critical engine failure only gives a second or two to react. Not good.”
I’m sitting here laughing because I know your situation:
I used to fly to and from the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the helo pilots were ex-Vietnam helo pilots. One was particularly adventurous. He wore the regulation sunglasses, never spoke and never smiled or looked at anyone else. He always had a mischievous look on his face. When we would take off from a rig he would swoop down toward the water and come within a few feet then swoop up. We could hear the gasps in the helo from the people who had never flown with him before or had never flown in a helo before. Thanks for the memory! ;-)
Cringed when I read it was a tourist helicopter, not because tourists ride different types of copters, but because most people don’t realize how dangerous flying in helicopters is. It’s just not worth it to do it for kicks.
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