[EnderWiggin1970]

Wonder what "split in half" even means for a helicopter. The tail assembly broke loose? The rotors fell off?

Another source said it looks like the helicopter was performing extreme maneuvers, maybe trying to impress the kids on board.

[SkyDancer]

A video shows something flying off the craft before spinning into the river. A picture shows the craft upside down with the floats intact so it had to split after it hit since it looks intact coming down.

[Texas Fossil]

I saw article about this on X, they had updated view that I could no longer see. So, I searched for the best news source that was covering the article New York Post is usually very accurate.

At this point, I doubt there will be much more detail. Unless someone at the crash site might add to it. Or someone who was close when the Helicopter broke in half. (I think they said split)

[DesertRhino]

Lot of strange maneuvering just before the crash. I’m guessing some mechanical failure leading to a loss of control. OR medical issue with a pilot and a passenger trying to fly.

Either way, it eventually exceeded design limits and had a structural failure.

Anyone know if a commercially operated helo of that type will have any kind of data recorder? And also, it remains to be seen if he said called out with any emergency or difficulty.

[Texas Fossil]

Bell 206 data

https://www.fairlifts.com/helicopters/bell-206-helicopter-specifications-a-comprehensive-overview-in-2025/

[DesertRhino]

Not impossible that the pilot was hot-dogging. But doing that in a tourist operation, over the NYC area with thousands of eyes and cell phones? That’s a near guarantee you’d be fired within the next couple of days as soon as the owner found out.

[steveo]

looks like main body hit first then rotor blades spun in a second or two later

[Obadiah]

Helicopters have a very low g-force tolerance. If true, this was a pilot induced crash.

[Robert DeLong]

Another source said it looks like the helicopter was performing extreme maneuvers, maybe trying to impress the kids on board.

I seriously doubt that was the case at all. I would venture to guess that the visual being observed was the result of a helicopter that is either out of control, or control is being degraded making it hard to control.

Thus, the damage had been done or it was in the process of breaking up.

[Rio]

Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.

[verum ago]

Wonder what "split in half" even means for a helicopter. The tail assembly broke loose? The rotors fell off?

Both, horribly enough. There are still images circulating now showing most of the tail boom gone and in multiple pieces, with the main rotors several hundred vertical feet above the main body of the aircraft just before it hits the water.

Another source said it looks like the helicopter was performing extreme maneuvers, maybe trying to impress the kids on board.

I feel reasonably confident that the extreme maneuvers were a result of what happened, and not the cause. No way a pilot could get away with that crap in NYC.

I'm not going to bother linking the still images I described because they're awful to behold. It must have been a horrible, terrifying way to die, getting tossed around inside that helicopter as it tumbled into the water.

[HamiltonJay]

Rotors gone, tail gone.. body of copter just plummeted.

https://youtube.com/shorts/IjdLWSgI6S0?si=g93rOOHJGA89vVwh

[1Old Pro]

The tail assembly broke loose? The rotors fell off?

both