There are many swirling questions after a tourist helicopter collapsed Thursday in the Hudson river in New York, killing the director of Siemens Mobility, AgustÃn Escobar, his wife and three children.
The pilot, who, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, had around 788 hours of experience in total flight, also died.
The 21 -year -old Bell 206 helicopter recorded N216MH and exploited by the New York helicopter, fell in the river off the shore of New Jersey around 3:15 p.m.
He crashed upside down after what seems to have been a break in the open air. The plane belonged to Meridian Helicopters, based in Louisiana, LLC, whose website says it sells, renovates and rents helicopters. Meridian did not return an email or a BI telephone message.
Former military helicopter pilot Brian Alexander told Business Insider that the accident seems to have been the result of a “catastrophic mechanical failure” involving both the main rotors and the tail.
He said that no cause was confirmed and that people should wait for the NTSB investigation before jumping to the conclusions. Alexander is also a partner of the aviation law firm of aviation Kreindler & Kreindler.
Although the helicopter accident on Thursday could arouse renewed fears in the middle of a recent aquel of air accidents, the cause is unlikely to be linked.
Why did the helicopter crash?
Videos published on social networks show that the rotary systems of the helicopter apparently detached in half-vol, falling into the water after the main body of the plane has already crashed.
“It is difficult to say who came first,” said Alexander. “There seems to be rotation, which would suggest a tail rotor problem, but you cannot exclude a main rotor standing out first and hitting the tail rotor.”
The spinning to which it refers is the helicopter fuselage because it fell into the Hudson, which, according to him, means that the tail rotor has probably failed at some point.
He explained that without a tail rotor, the helicopter “would run like a high” due to the couple created by the main rotor because he produces the elevator and the push. Or the two failing systems could lead to an accident.
“If you lose your main rotor, which means it is detached, you do not have an elevator, you have finished,” said Alexander. “There is nothing that you can do at that time; you are just an object that falls.”
He said that a helicopter who just loses a tail rotor is a serious situation, but he can always be piloted – but with great difficulty.
The Bell 206 helicopter took off from the Heliport in downtown Wall Street in New York around 2:50 p.m. for a tourist flight. Yasin Deirci / Anadolu via Getty Images
Alexander said that loss of power is generally a more surmountable problem. In a scenario where the helicopter engine failed and the blades were still attached, the plane could automatically rotate to get down to land.
The president of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, said on Friday that part of the wreckage had been withdrawn from the river, but that the diving teams always recovered components, including the main and tail rotors.
She said that the agency “does not speculate” on the probable cause and had to gather the components driven, conduct witness interviews and collect recordings such as maintenance newspapers.
Why did Rotors apparently detached?
Alexander said there were several reasons why helicopter rotors could detach, such as a mechanical error or a transmission problem.
He also said that the mast – which connects the main rotor center to transmission – could have disconnected entirely.
“Someone on the side of the interview may not have tightened a bolt, or a game has failed,” he said, stressing that any cause is still unknown. “I am sure that is what (the investigators) will examine.”
Debris near the accident site. Divers always recover rotor systems, according to the NTSB. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images
It would not be the first time that a helicopter belonging to Meridian and exploited by the New York helicopter has undergone system dysfunction.
In 2015, the tail rotor transmission tree on another of the company’s Bell 206 helicopters was detached, which caused a loss of control and a hard landing in New Jersey, according to the NTSB.
The pilot, who was the only occupant, was not injured.
The transmission shaft transmits the power of the transmission to the tail rotor. However, the NTSB determined that that installed was “worthy of Digne”.
Meridian told the NTSB that the transmission tree had been bought at auction by the previous owner of the helicopter after the same helicopter experienced a separate hard landing in 2010.
The inspectors found that the transmission tree had been repainted, corrosion had been deleted and the serial number did not correspond to the known recordings – which means that they could not determine if it was the same transmission tree which was attached to the helicopter during the hard landing of 2010.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the 2015 accident was the “deliberate concealment and reuse” of a defective transmission tree “by the” unknown staff “.
The New York helicopter did not respond to BI calls; Its president refused to comment on the Wall Street Journal.
How often do helicopters crash?
Although helicopters are generally safe as long as security procedures are followed, they have a relatively higher crash rate than commercial aircraft due to their more risky complex systems and their operating environment.
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Helicopters have more mobile parts, require more adjustments, rely on automatic rotation on emergency land rather than skiing, operate at lower altitudes and generally fly in a less controlled aerial space.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that Thursday’s helicopter was flying in the special flight rules at the time of the accident, where there is no air traffic control support.
Emergency intervention teams at the scene of the helicopter accident in New York on Thursday. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images
Data from the American helicopter safety team show that there were around 90 helicopter accidents in 2024, 13 of which led to 30 collective deaths.
A report by the Associated Press said that at least 32 people had been killed in helicopter accidents in New York between 1977 and 2019.
Five people died in 2018 when a helicopter crashed and overturned in the East river. A year later, a helicopter accident landed on the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper, killing the pilot.
Accidents have triggered restrictions on things such as flight trajectories and landing points to improve safety.
Alexander said that although helicopter accidents are more common, the full detachment of the main rotor is rare. “Everything about it is unusual,” he said. “You don’t see something like what we’ve all seen.”
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