New York – Lawmakers Want Rules Against NYC Helicopters After Crash

New York – New York City politicians called for a ban on “non-essential” helicopter flights over the city Wednesday as investigators studied weather reports and examined instruments from a downed helicopter for clues to its fatal crash in the East River.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and five state and city legislators said the crash underscored the danger of helicopter flights. They called for a total ban on tourist flights and pleasure trips by privately owned aircraft at Manhattan’s three heliports.

“Yet another terrible tragedy involving a helicopter should send us a clear message in flashing neon lights,” Nadler said in a written statement. “Sightseeing and nonessential helicopters are dangerous, unnecessary, and not worth it.”

Aviation trade groups said any rules would be premature, because investigators are still trying to determine what caused the crash.

“You can’t offer a solution to a problem you don’t even understand yet,” said Matt Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Association International, an advocacy group.

Commercial air tour companies are already limited to a heliport near Wall Street and only fly specific routes around the Hudson River and New York Bay. But the Bell 206 that crashed on Tuesday at the East 34th Street Heliport was on a private, non-commercial flight and was carrying only friends of the pilot. The crash killed passenger Sonia Marra, 40, a British citizen living in Australia; no one on the ground was injured.

Investigators on Wednesday were examining the soggy wreckage of the helicopter at a former Navy base in Brooklyn.

They were hoping to extract information that may have been stored by the aircraft’s GPS navigation equipment, engine monitors or other instruments, said Mark Rosekind, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Experts were also talking to the pilot and reviewing videos of the crash for clues.

Rosekind said a piece of one of the helicopter’s main rotor blades was missing, but it’s not clear whether it broke before or after it crashed. The helicopter was built in 1976, and investigators were reviewing its maintenance logs, he said.

Experts were also studying the weather, which has been a key factor in other crashes at Manhattan heliports.

“One of the areas we’re looking at are the winds,” Rosekind said.

A weather reporting station at nearby LaGuardia Airport had reported gusts of up to 20 mph on Tuesday afternoon, and there were gusts to 25 mph at Kennedy airport. Winds can sometimes be rougher along the river because of turbulence caused by tall buildings and bridges.

In June 2005, two helicopters crashed within four days of each other at the East 34th Street Heliport. One, a Sikorsky, took off in 17 to 26 mph winds and was caught by a tailwind that had been initially blocked by a building. The tailwind caused the helicopter to lose lift and drop suddenly into the water.

The other helicopter, a Bell 206 similar to the one that crashed on Tuesday, had taken off overweight and with a tailwind that made it harder to climb, the NTSB determined.

The NTSB also cited winds in the crash of helicopters in 1985, 1986, 1990 and 1997.

The FAA and city officials tightened the rules governing commercial sightseeing flights after a sightseeing helicopter and a light plane collided over the Hudson River in 2009.

Sightseeing flights now depart from the Wall Street heliport near Manhattan’s tip and follow a strict route. Aircraft on the Hudson River have to obey a 161-mph speed limit and call out their position on the radio using landmarks.

But local lawmakers have clamored to have tourist flights eliminated entirely.

“You’re talking about the densest population center in the country; very, very tight, narrow corridors; and a huge amount of volume,” said state Sen. Daniel Squadron. “And even though they’re not going over land, that’s still a pretty dangerous cocktail.”

The pilot in Tuesday’s crash, Paul Dudley, was a charter pilot who also managed the Linden, N.J., airport where many New York City helicopters are based. But on Tuesday he was flying for himself and his friends, Rosekind said.

Aviation advocates said the lawmakers were using the crash as an excuse to pick on tour companies.

“Any banning of tourist flights would not have prevented this tragedy,” Jeff Smith, Chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, said in a written statement.

The passengers in Tuesday’s flight were visiting New York to celebrate the birthdays of Marra and her stepfather, Paul Nicholson, 71.

They were accompanied by Nicholson’s wife, Harriet, 60; and a friend of Marra’s, Helen Tamaki, 43. The Nicholsons are British but live in Portugal; Marra, a British citizen, and Tamaki, a citizen of New Zealand, lived in Sydney, Australia.

The group had planned to do some sightseeing and then go to dinner in Linden, N.J., where Dudley kept his helicopter, police said.

Marra had worked at Galluzzo’s fruit and vegetable market in the Sydney suburb of Glebe for the past three months, said worker Joe Galluzzo. Marra was thrilled when Tamaki surprised her with the trip to New York as a 40th birthday present, Galluzzo said.

Marra had not seen her family in years, and was planning to meet up with them at the top of the Empire State Building as soon as she and Tamaki arrived in New York, Galluzzo said.

“Loved by the customers, fantastic personality — very bubbly,” Galluzzo said of Marra. “She couldn’t do enough for us. She was just a great, great person.”

Fellow pilots at the Linden airport said Dudley is an experienced pilot in both helicopters and airplanes. He had more than 2,200 flight hours under his belt as a pilot, including about 500 hours in the Bell 206, Rosekind said.

In 2006 he landed a Cessna 172 light plane in a park near Coney Island in Brooklyn after the engine failed. No one was hurt during the landing. Mechanics removed the plane’s winds and trucked it back to the Linden airport.