The Thursday crash of a sightseeing helicopter into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists, has reignited the debate over the use of helicopters for tourism in the city and the need for stricter safety regulation to better protect passengers.
The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with helicopters that give tourists panoramic views of the city, along with private flights that shuttle corporate executives and others around. But dozens of helicopter crashes in New York City have killed at least 38 people since 1977, and Thursday’s fatal wreck in the Hudson River, which was operated by the Manhattan-based New York Helicopters, has revived calls from state lawmakers to limit and sternly regulate helicopter traffic in the city’s air space.
“Helicopters should be reserved for emergency response, essential news coverage and public safety operations — not sightseeing or luxury travel,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents part of Manhattan’s west side. Hoylman-Sigal has pushed for a ban on what he calls “non-essential” chopper flights over the city, arguing that they are not properly regulated. “This is a foreseeable tragedy that could have been far worse had it occurred over land,” he added.
Brooklyn state Assembly member Robert Carroll echoed Hoylman-Sigal’s concerns in a Friday statement: “Yesterday’s tragic helicopter crash highlights why non-essential helicopter flights should be banned,” said Carroll. “Our airspace is too congested, and the safety protocols are too lax. These flights are a danger to all who ride them.”
Mayor Eric Adams, however, said in a Friday interview on FOX5 that he does not support a ban on non-emergency helicopter traffic because it’s a lucrative draw for tourists and “many of our business leaders” use choppers to get around. “Air travel is crucial to this city,” he said.
Under Federal Aviation Administration regulation, helicopters that fly tourists over the city can operate under the lowest level of federal safety standards because they are for a short duration.
“There’s a loophole in the regulation,” said Justin Green, an aviation attorney who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps. “If I fly from New York City to Atlantic City, suddenly, I have to comply with more rigorous commercial regulatory standards, but if I fly locally and land the same helicopter, same pilot, now I don’t have to operate under those standards.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating Thursday’s crash. The precise cause of the incident is currently unclear, officials said. In the meantime, the FAA has identified the helicopter as a Bell 206 — a model that is widely used in commercial aviation by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police.
Video of the crash suggests to Green that some sort of “catastrophic mechanical failure” occurred that left the pilot with little ability to course correct. It’s unclear, he said, if stricter operational regulations could have prevented the crash, but it likely would have made a difference in other high-profile New York City crashes, such as the 2009 midair collision over the Hudson between a tourist helicopter and a private plane that killed nine people. Green represented the pilot’s family in litigation over the crash.
“Operational regulations aren’t going to cure a design defect or if it’s a mistake made in maintenance,” said Green. “But more oversight of maintenance programs would, so it’s clear that the safety standards should improve.”
