The river is the only clear area for an emergency landing in the city - ask Sully.
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 ...
“Some people must have made it to the roof.”
It has been documented that the doors to the roofs on both buildings were locked.
My helicopter pilot husband just said there was nothing the pilot could have done.
He flies this same aircraft type. They call it “the squirrel” for a reason.
If you’ve every dealt with NY tourists, it’s pretty obvious that they never had a chance. Most likely they were spending their time in there trying to figure out who to complain to, rather than trying to unbuckle their seat belts.
It's done in a swimming pool, usually with 10-15 trainees and at least two instructors.
You're put in a helicopter mock-up with seats, aviation style seat belts, small windows with pop-out capability - if you can unlatch and hit them hard enough.
You're flipped over in this thing, and subsequently under water. With your seat belt fastened, upside down, and an incomprehensible amount of water jacked up your nose in the process.
You do a silent 5 count while you are upside down and dizzy underwater, holding your breath. Because you wouldn't want to pop out in record time, get your head above water, and have the still spinning helicopter blades decapitate you.
After your 5-Count, you unlock the seat belt. If you inflate your air vest at that point, it will pin you against the underwater roof of the passenger compartment, and you will drown.
So you pop out a window, release the seat belt, swim out - and live. Unless the water is on fire from ignited aviation fuel, but there is a technique to survive that, too.
You do this multiple times, sometimes pretending you are in an inner / aisle seat, and you have to feel your way to an escape window, and pop out through that - if the guy in front of you has already exited the mock-up.
Instructors are there underwater with you to drag you to the surface, if you look like you're panicking, and about to drown during training.
Once the instructors are happy that you've mastered all this, they blindfold you - because you may crash at night, and you have to be able to do all of this by feel. And so you repeat the process several more times, each time blindfolded.
This is about the LEAST amount of fun you can have in a swimming pool for at least two hours. But this training has been proven to save lives. I just pray I never have to do it for real - 80 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico!
If you've never had this type of training, realistically, you have practically no chance at all to survive a helicopter crash into water.
Prayers up for all.
It’s Spring Break, for many across the country. Many families and school groups go to NYC for SB.
RIP to those who died. 😢
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.
As soon as the helopicopter touched the water, it changed from aircraft to vessel. Not a patrticularly seaworthy vessel, though.
It changed from an aircraft to an anchor.
It wasn't always the case -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)
The times they are a'changing though.
The river is the only clear area for an emergency landing in the city - ask Sully.
Helicopters don’t fly. They beat the air into submission.
Maybe he was a student under a friend of mine who instructed in the air force. He told his students that in the event of a potentially unrecoverable emergency, he would say only one time......”Follow MEeeee....”
.
There you go with your imagination again!
I didn’t say that.
Try getting in one and being let off inn a ledge that is 10’x10’ at 15,600 feet.
That was fun..a couple times...
That looks like a water landing. Did they think the thing would float.
With an abrupt turn of events, one finds everything upside down while hanging from a harness, little to no lighting, cold water coming into a warm cabin, and disorientation from shock.
A third panic, scream, and thrash about ineffectually. A third will begin to fight among themselves, especially if it appears someone is making progress toward escape. The remaining third have training or experience which guides their actions. Sometimes one has little choice except to let events play out, hold their breath, and bide time.
I think most would agree that the chances of a passenger getting out alive, without any training, is virtually zero. The question is, could the pilot have helped any of them get out alive if the pilot tried.
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