Posted on 04/10/2025 2:58:44 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
A helicopter carrying a family of tourists from Spain crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon – killing all six passengers on board, according to fire officials and sources.
Rescue efforts are underway after witnesses saw the Bell 206 chopper “split in half” before it went down near Pier 40 on West Houston Street and West Street around 3:15 p.m., the New York City Fire Department told The Post.
Sources told The Post all six people on board were killed, which included two adults, three children and the pilot.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Very sad. I recall jokes being made about Kobe B. Being the worst helicopter parent.
Tragedy and a reminder that life is precious and unpredictable. We easily dismiss the dangers of recreation like airplane rides for tourists, etc. RIP and may God bless.
They were visiting from Spain this is a sight seeing helicopter tour..by the looks of the video, NOTHING could have been done here, no amount of expertise could have stopped this, unfortunately these people were dead the second they got on board..prayers for their family
That makes sense. I just wondered if they had a FDR equipment requirement under Part 135 or Part 136. I wouldn’t expect most Part 91 206s to have one.
That’s what I saw also.
More like the main rotor slapped the tail boom when the pilot was messing around, it happens.
A “tail strike” aka “Mast Bumping” can happen (usually Robinson R22 and R44’s helis lately tho.)...it is when the main rotor blade flexes too much and hits the tail boom cutting it off...extreme maneuvering, a transmission movement issue, etc. can cause it:
https://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=D1A2247E-B2BD-4B15-9E27-174D2B86A6DA
http://www.rotorshop.com/tailboomstrike.html
https://jetcareers.com/forums/threads/loss-of-tail-rotor.315676/
Helicopters have a very low g-force tolerance. If true, this was a pilot induced crash.
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.
Current speculation is collision with a drone.
I’m thinking the tail rotor too, but it looks like the main rotor is missing or the camera angle doesn’t show it; the way it spun in it has to be the tail rotor.
Main rotor striking the empennage will do that.
Can happen if a hard enough maneuver is done and the rotor disc warps enough to contact the tail.
Yeah, weird that, you’d figure the tail rotor would separate but not the whole tail boom.
All too true.
I did not spend time examining the images up close.
So I am no help on that part.
Counterfeit parts/bolts?
That is possible. I don’t know anything about what that would take.
I read that this model of Bell helicopters were made in Canada.
Not sure that all were.
Terrible Loss.
Mast bump. Lost the head, cut off the tail in the vid I saw. Not going anywhere but down after that.
Tail rotor going out of sync with main rotor is the likely cause - have seen this in MIL birds (Ch-46/47).
It would, but you would have to enter the autorotation immediately. Vid I saw had no main rotor. Mast bumping.
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