Posted on 04/11/2025 4:59:18 AM PDT by Angelino97
New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal has called for a ban on sightseeing helicopter tours in New York City — sensationally saying Thursday’s tragic crash in the Hudson River narrowly avoided disaster had the chopper crashed into a densely-populated area.
Including this week’s harrowing tragedy, a total of 25 people have died in the Big Apple during sightseeing helicopter tours in the last 40 years.
Now, Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) expressed a strong desire to limit traffic over the city to just first responders and press — and said NYC should ditch sightseeing chopper tours.
“There’s no reason to allow tourists and tour flight operators to use our valuable precious airspace,” he told ABC 7 New York.
The state legislator added that there’s too little safety regulations in place for such tours taking place daily.
“The danger is that FAA regulates airspace above 500 feet, so the city and state are prohibited from passing laws that make tourist choppers safer,” he added.
On Thursday, a Spanish family-of-five and an unidentified pilot tragically died after the the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter they were on plummeted into the Hudson River.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Bad maintenance on that chopper......maybe a few too many unqualified DEI hires?
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More likely too much profit taking on the owner’s part and too little spent on doing required maintenance.
He didn’t?
Well, this is from the NYT
Maybe you have an explanation
“By J. David Goodman
Nov. 30, 2016
For much of his tenure, Mayor Bill de Blasio has rarely availed himself of Police Department helicopters to get around New York City. Getting around that way, he has said, was simply not his thing.
But over the last three months, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, has taken 10 trips by police helicopter to various parts of the city — a sharp increase from his travel patterns earlier in his mayoralty, according to Police Department logs dating back to his first day on the job that were obtained by The New York Times via a Freedom of Information Request.
The recent trips included a roughly seven-mile jaunt on Oct. 14 that carried him from Prospect Park in Brooklyn to Hunters Point in Queens — and brought with it several days of negative headlines after a video surfaced of the mayor’s copter ride.”
The main rotor is not long enough to hit the tail. If the main rotor hit the tail boom, then the main rotor would be wrecked as bad as the tail boom. Pictures show the main rotor in tact when it separated from the aircraft.
My speculation is the Jesus nut came off or the transmission failed releasing the main rotor from the aircraft.
What is a Jesus nut? It’s the single nut that holds the main rotor to the transmission output shaft. When it comes off the first thing the pilots says is: “Oh Jesus!”
Many think the purpose of the tail rotor is to stabilize flight. That’s WRONG. It’s purpose is to keep the pilot cool. For when the tail rotor comes off the pilot starts to sweat.
Catastrophic failure of the chopper’s mehcanical systems has the taste of,” get ione more flight out before the overhaul and re-issuance of flight worthy certification/certificate of inspection.
It will be interesting to see the flight logs of that chopper..... I bet the in-service hours were fudged to the nines.
If what you say is true, the owner is going to pay big to any surviving family member of that Spanish tourist family..THREE KIDS DEAD.....just like that....IN AMERICA!
A travesty.
They should be sending in more.
I stand corrected If we are taking deblasio s word
“So for the time being, we are forced to speculate. And it does not escape our attention that the mayor’s favorite gym, the Prospect Park Y, is located a few blocks west of his pickup spot in the park, and that the timing of his helicopter ride conveniently corresponded with rush hour.”
How many died on the subway in that time period?
Falling over each other to be the first. Where are they before the crash, exactly
Standard NY prog response
Thank you. You made my day... and it’s early. A friend’s dad had the first instrument Jet Ranger in the SF Bay area. (leased to HP). His brother Ralph used to take it up to their cabin at Lake Almanor and blow Bill around the lake on his wind surfer on hot, still days.
Been wondering if a privately owned drone was involved in the mess.
But the videos/photos I’ve seen seem to show the main rotor still mostly intact though one blade shorter than the other.
The issue with DeBlasio and his gym was not anything to do with helicopters but that he was getting driven in an SUV from the Upper West Side to Park Slope every time he wanted to use a gym despite the fact that there were plenty of gyms near Gracie Mansion.
And he probably could get some equipment installed much cheaper than his chauffeur driven trips to Brooklyn.
No. It was a helicopter. If you’re not going to pay attention to the story or even read the excerpts we are done here
Videos/photos I saw showed the main rotor still intact though one blade shorter than the other. Plus no tail, much less tail rotor.
Should we not determine the exact cause of the crash before passing laws? Perhaps it’s the cities fault for not inspecting aircraft properly?
I’ve ridden in helicopters many times and never had a scare. Maintained properly, and flown by a qualified pilot, and by non DEI personell, they are as safe as any aircraft, in my opinion.
And, let me be clear, by non DEI, I mean people hired based on demonstrated merit, not skin color of sexual proclivities.
I’ve ridden in helicopters many times and never had a scare. Maintained properly, and flown by a qualified pilot, and by non DEI personell, they are as safe as any aircraft, in my opinion.
And, let me be clear, by non DEI, I mean people hired based on demonstrated merit, not skin color or sexual proclivities.
The rotors make up the flying disc. That is what actually flies. The cabin is simply attached to it via the tranny mounts.
Th tail rotor keeps the tail from counter rotating from the torque of the main rotor when hovering and slow speeds.
At speed, mostly trims out with only a slight deviation to the left, Can actually fly without the tail rotor, but landing must be over 40 knots.
In this instance, the Cap nut came off, for whatever reason, poor maint, forgot to safety wire te keeper lock washer, poor seating when the head was replaced, whatever.
The rotor disc was still flying when it came off, and continues to spin until it hit the water separately.
Once detached, the cabin simply fell.
The tail boom likely sliced off when the main came off and tilted backwards, as it was rotating.
The tail boom is held on by four bolts, but a blade can slice it right off, seen it happen on rough landings.
What is puzzling is the witnessed accounts of maneuvers prior.
Was it rattling and set up a 1/1 vibe that caused panic in the pilot's mind?
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