National Transportation Safety Board

Subterms

    Latest story

    150 Shares17 Views

    Missing Rotor Is Recovered From Site of Helicopter Crash in Hudson River

    by

    The aircraft was on a sightseeing flight when it suddenly broke apart in midair, its rotor blades falling separately toward the water.When rescue crews reached the passenger compartment of the helicopter that plunged into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing all six of its occupants, the aircraft was missing several critical components, including the rotor and blades that had kept it aloft.On Monday afternoon, four days after the fatal crash, investigators fished several of those missing pieces out of the river, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency that is leading the investigation to determine the cause.Divers from the New York Police Department, working with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Jersey City Office of Emergency Management, recovered the helicopter’s main rotor system, its transmission and roof beam, the safety board said late Monday.The helicopter, a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger operated by New York Helicopter Tours, was on a sightseeing flight over the river on Thursday when it suddenly broke apart in midair.Videos posted on social media showed the rotor blades and part of the aircraft’s tail falling separately toward the water. The main body of the helicopter plummeted into the water on the western side of the river near Jersey City, N.J., and then floated upside down.The passengers — Agustín Escobar, Mercè Camprubí Montal and their three young children, Agustín, Mercè and Víctor — were all killed. The pilot, Seankese Johnson, also died.The chief executive of New York Helicopter, Michael Roth, said last week that he had no information about what had happened to the helicopter, which took off from a heliport in Lower Manhattan and was headed back there when it crashed.The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates commercial air transportation, said on Sunday night that New York Helicopter had stopped taking customers on tours after the crash.Then on Monday night, the F.A.A. issued an emergency order to shut down New York Helicopter for safety reasons. The agency said that, after the crash, the company’s director of operations, Jason Costello, had said it would suspend operations. But within half an hour, Mr. Roth contacted the agency to say he had not authorized a suspension of operations and that Mr. Costello no longer worked for him.The F.A.A. called the “intentional firing” of Mr. Costello a retaliation and determined that it left the company without “sufficient qualified management and technical personnel to ensure the safety of its operations.”The transportation safety board said that its efforts to recover pieces of the helicopter had concluded. But its investigation is just getting underway.The safety board’s staff will conduct interviews and study the wreckage and the operator’s maintenance records to try to determine why the helicopter had broken apart. Its investigations often take several months and sometimes are not concluded for more than a year.On Tuesday, the safety board is holding a hearing to discuss its final report on a fire aboard a ship in Newark, in which two members of Newark’s fire department died. That fire happened in July 2023. More

    More stories

    • 125 Shares56 Views

      in Elections

      Charter Company in Fatal Helicopter Crash Had Prior Mechanical Failures

      by

      The firm that operated the helicopter that crashed in the Hudson River on Thursday, killing all six people aboard, has a long history of flying excursions around New York City, some of which have encountered safety problems.In 2013, one of the helicopters operated by the company, New York Helicopter Charter, was carrying a family of four on a sightseeing tour when it suddenly lost power. It was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River near the Upper West Side of Manhattan.About two years later, another of its helicopters crashed while hovering 20 feet off the ground after taking off in northern New Jersey.In that episode, the pilot reported that the helicopter had started to spin out of control before he put it down for a “hard landing.” An investigation found that the aircraft had previously been involved in a hard landing in Chile in 2010 and that a drive shaft that was “unairworthy” was installed on the aircraft, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board.The investigation found that the faulty drive shaft had been painted by a previous owner, making it impossible to tell whether it had been part of the helicopter during the earlier hard landing.The investigators found that the probable cause of the crash was “deliberate concealment and reuse” of the faulty component “by unknown personnel.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares62 Views

      in Elections

      What Is the Bell 206L Helicopter?

      by

      The sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing six people, was a Bell 206L LongRanger, a common single-engine aircraft long used for law enforcement missions, medical lifts, newsgathering and aerial tourism.The 206L has been in use for decades; its maker, Bell Textron, an aviation company based in Texas, took it out of production less than 10 years ago. With upkeep, the model is seen as safe and reliable, according to Greg Feith, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator who has flown one. “It’s a tried and true aircraft,” Mr. Feith said, adding, “As long as the maintenance has been done, and done properly, it’s going to be a reliable aircraft.” The helicopter is versatile and light, can carry up to six occupants, and flies at maximum speeds of about 115 miles per hour, Mr. Feith said.Over the last 25 years, Bell 206 helicopters — a family of similar models that includes the Bell 206L — have been involved in 82 fatal accidents in the United States, according to National Transportation Safety Board records. A spokeswoman for Bell, Lindsey Hughes, said in a statement, “Bell is following this tragedy as it develops, but we must direct any questions to the NTSB.” The 206L has been particularly popular with helicopter sightseeing tour companies, according to Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline pilot and an assistant professor at the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University.Mr. Pruchnicki said that he had greater concerns about the safety record of aerial sightseeing companies than the model of helicopter. “The helicopter tours do have a problematic record,” he said, “and they have had for a long time.” Mr. Feith, the former N.T.S.B investigator, said he would want to know the number of flights the aircraft had flown on Thursday and whether it had recent maintenance work done. “You want to see if there was evidence of fatigue, overstress” on the helicopter, Mr. Feith said. “There are a lot of elements to be explored.”Santul Nerkar More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      3 People Killed in Medical Helicopter Crash in Mississippi

      by

      A pilot and two crew members were aboard the helicopter, which was not carrying any patients when it plunged into the woods outside Jackson.All three people working aboard a medical helicopter were killed when it crashed into a densely wooded area outside Jackson, Miss., on Monday while returning from transporting a patient, hospital officials said.Two of the people were crew members who worked for the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the other was a pilot, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the medical center’s top administrator, said during a news conference. The helicopter was not carrying any patients at the time of the accident, she added.It was not clear what caused the aircraft, which the Federal Aviation Administration identified as a Eurocopter EC-135, to lose control. The F.A.A. said that it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the crash, which occurred around 1:15 p.m.Officials did not release the names of the three people who died. They were based out of Columbus, Miss., and were part of AirCare 3, one of four medical helicopter units operated by the medical center.“The entire medical center family is heartbroken over this,” Dr. Woodward said. “This is the crew that responds to emergencies all across the state, and to see them today to respond to one of their own was just something that you can’t put into words.”Dr. Woodward said that the AirCare helicopters and their crews played an integral role in providing critical care services across Mississippi, and that they had a spotless safety record until the crash on Monday.The crews frequently include nurses and paramedics, according to an information page on the medical center’s website. They are equipped with oxygen, ventilators and other critical care equipment.Dr. Woodward said that the pilot who died worked for Med-Trans, the company that leases the AirCare helicopters to the medical center.The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.The crash happened a little more than five weeks after a medical jet crashed in Philadelphia, killing six people aboard the plane and one person on the ground. And it added to a spate of recent aviation accidents. On Jan. 29, an American Airlines regional jet and an Army helicopter collided over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., leaving no survivors. On Feb. 17, a Delta Air Lines flight trying to land at Toronto Pearson International Airport amid strong winds and drifting snow crashed and flipped over on the tarmac; all 80 people who were aboard that plane survived. More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Army Helicopter Might Have Missed Critical Instruction Before Midair Crash

      by

      Investigators said that an air traffic controller had instructed the Black Hawk crew to pass behind a nearby passenger jet, but that information might have got lost.National Transportation Safety Board officials said on Friday that they were investigating what appeared to be confused communications inside the cockpit of an Army Black Hawk helicopter moments before colliding with an American Airlines jet last month near Ronald Reagan National Airport.N.T.S.B. investigators are still trying to determine whether and how the miscommunications contributed to the collision that killed all 67 people in both aircraft over the Potomac River on Jan 29. The American Airlines regional jet was arriving at National Airport from Wichita, Kan. The Black Hawk crew was carrying out a training mission so the pilot could perform a required annual evaluation flight.During a news conference, the investigative board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, gave two instances of when the air traffic controller had given instructions to the Black Hawk three-person crew on how to weave through the busy National Airport airspace that the crew may not have completely received.The first instance, Ms. Homendy said, involved the helicopter crew members’ possibly not hearing the air traffic controller inform them that the American Airlines jet was “circling” to switch runways for landing. She said investigators could hear that word when replaying the controllers’ communications but noticed it was missing from the Black Hawk’s cockpit voice recorder.The airplane, American Airlines Flight 5342, was making its final descent after having been transferred from Runway 1, a regular landing strip for commercial regional jets, to Runway 33, a strip used far less often.Later, Ms. Homendy said, the air traffic controller told the Black Hawk helicopter to pass behind the plane that was seconds away from landing. But based on cockpit voice recorder data from the helicopter a “portion of the transmission that stated ‘pass behind the’ may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew,” Ms. Homendy said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Newsom Vetoes Bill Requiring Cars to Warn Speeding Drivers

      by

      The legislation would have made California the first state in the nation to require intelligent speed assistance technology in vehicles.Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday vetoed California legislation that would have mandated that all new cars in the state have a system that alerts drivers when they exceed the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour.Speeding is a factor in nearly one-third of traffic fatalities in the United States, and the legislation’s supporters said they wanted to curb rising roadway deaths by making California the first state in the nation to require the technology.The state has a long history of adopting vehicle requirements, particularly on emissions, that have spurred automakers to adopt changes across their national fleet. Backers hoped that the California speed sensor law would have similarly forced changes that would have had an impact beyond the state.Intelligent speed assistance systems have been widely used in Europe for years, and they became mandatory in July in all new cars sold in the European Union. They are similar to other driver assistance technologies that, for example, notify drivers if a car is their blind spot or if their vehicle is drifting into another lane.Research in Europe has found that speed-warning systems reduce average driving speed, speed variability and the proportion of time that a driver exceeds the speed limit, said Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, which has urged the federal government to require the technology in the United States.The California bill would have mandated that, beginning with model year 2030, all new passenger vehicles, trucks and buses in California would have to include technology that emits visual and audio signals that notify drivers when they have exceeded the posted speed limit. Emergency vehicles and motorcycles would have been exempt, as would vehicles without GPS or a front-facing camera.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Safety Board Warns of Rudder Control Defect in Some Boeing Planes

      by

      The National Transportation Safety Board said it had found a defective part in the system that helps steer the aircraft after investigating an incident at Newark airport.The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday issued a safety alert and recommendations for some Boeing planes, warning that a defect could cause the rudder control system that helps steer the aircraft to jam.The warning applies to some of the company’s 737 Max and 737NG jets. It stems from the agency’s investigation into a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that experienced “stuck” rudder pedals while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in February.The safety board said it had been notified that more than 350 of the defective parts were delivered to Boeing, but it was not immediately clear how many planes with the affected component might be in service. The Federal Aviation Administration said it believed United was the only U.S. operator that had the faulty parts, and United said it had removed the components from its nine affected planes.The safety board urged the F.A.A. to determine whether the faulty parts should be removed from service and, if so, to mandate that U.S. operators replace them. It also recommended informing international aviation regulators to encourage similar actions. The F.A.A. said in a statement that it had “been monitoring this situation closely” and would convene a panel to determine its next steps.The warning adds to a string of safety woes for Boeing, which is already under intense scrutiny from regulators after incidents including a panel that blew off a jet midair this year. An audit conducted by the F.A.A. after that incident found dozens of problems throughout the 737 Max’s manufacturing process.The safety board opened its investigation into the rudder control issue on Feb. 6, after the captain of a 737 Max 8 had to use the nose wheel steering tiller to maintain control of the plane when the rudder pedal became stuck while landing at Newark. A plane’s rudder control is primarily used on takeoff and landing to maintain the direction of the plane’s nose.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Jury Awards $116 Million to Family of Man Who Died in Helicopter Crash

      by

      When an open-door tourist helicopter crashed into the East River, Trevor Cadigan, 26, and four other passengers were unable to escape from cumbersome safety harnesses.The helicopter flight began with celebration. “All right — let’s do it!” the pilot shouted just before liftoff from the heliport in New Jersey.“Party,” said one passenger. “Hooo!” said another.After flybys of the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center and the Brooklyn Bridge, during which passengers leaned out the open door to shoot photos, the flight ended suddenly 14 minutes after takeoff when the red helicopter plunged into the East River. It tipped on its side, and as cold water flooded the cockpit, the passengers realized they could not escape.“How do I cut this?” a passenger said, struggling to free himself from the harness that anchored him to the aircraft, according to the transcript of an onboard video from the flight released by the National Transportation Safety Board.All five passengers died in the March 11, 2018, flight. Only the pilot escaped. The accident was caused by a loose, improvised safety harness that caught on the helicopter’s fuel shut-off lever, mounted on the floor. That activated the lever, killed the engine and caused the crash, the safety board found.The safety harnesses, meant to prevent passengers from falling out the open door of the helicopter, instead locked the passengers in place, exposing them to “great difficulty extricating themselves” quickly in an emergency, the safety board found.Six jurors in State Supreme Court in Manhattan agreed on Thursday, awarding $116 million in compensatory and punitive damages to family members of one of the passengers, Trevor Cadigan, 26.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Federal Audit Orders M.T.A. to Improve Subway Worker Safety

      by

      The Federal Transit Administration released the report nine months after the death of a transit worker. If the M.T.A. does not comply, it could lose funding.Federal transportation officials said on Wednesday that the death of a transit worker who was hit by a train in November, as well as a rising number of “near-miss” incidents on train tracks last year, reflected unsafe conditions and practices that were putting transit employees at growing risk.In an audit, the Federal Transit Administration counted 38 events in which track workers were involved in close calls in 2023. That tally was up from 24 incidents in 2022 and 23 in 2021.The majority of the dangerous events were caused by the failure of transit employees to “comply with key safety rules and established procedures,” according to the F.T.A.Half of the “near-miss” incidents last year involved one or more transit workers who failed to follow proper procedures while flagging — the job of notifying trains when workers are on the tracks. Other incidents involved factors such as improper communication and radio use, inadequate protection and train operator inattention. A “near-miss” incident is defined as an event in which death or injury is narrowly avoided and typically happens when a worker is struck by a train, steps on the third rail or slips and falls on the tracks.“The volume of close calls is pretty worrying,” said Jim Mathews, chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association, an advocacy group. “If you work in and around the subway, you’ve had an awful lot of close calls, and eventually close calls catch up to you.”The F.T.A., which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, drew up a list of remedies for the unsafe working conditions that included an updated safety plan from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s transit network.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More