Six people dead as helicopter crashes into Hudson River

[Gold Member]

Excerpt the the Australian (paywalled) - https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wo...r/news-story/01f266351f097c411798a4da0458e743

Six people have died after a helicopter crashed in the Hudson River in New York City on Friday morning (AEST).

Witnesses said they saw the chopper “split in half” before it went down near Pier 40 on West Houston Street and West Street around 3.15pm (6.15am AEST), the New York City Fire Department told The New York Post.

An official told The Associated Press that six people were aboard, and all were dead.

Videos posted on social media showed the aircraft mostly submerged, upside down in the water. The fire department said it had units on scene performing rescue operations. Multiple rescue boats were seen on video circling the aircraft

 

[Princess Fiona]

BBC News.
Helicopter Crash

NYT reporting was a Siemens executive and his wife and 3 kids on holiday from Spain.

 

[Comoman]

Named already: https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...y/news-story/c26838220a062e9fd6688ddea02cd1b8

It appears from the image the tail rotor broke off.

Edit: images also show the main rotor also came off in flight. Extraordinary.

Helicopter crash New York City - PPRuNe Forums

Rotorheads - Helicopter crash New York City - Just heard about this on Fox news. NEW YORK (AP) — A helicopter crashed Thursday into the Hudson River off Manhattan, authorities said. The fire department said it received a report of a helicopter in the water near at 3:17 p.m. The crash happened in...

www.pprune.org

 

[Denali]

Incredibly sad, when you see their happy photos. I would only hope (if this was me) it was death on impact and not drowning while conscious, worrying about your kids

 

[blackcat20]

Incredibly sad, when you see their happy photos. I would only hope (if this was me) it was death on impact and not drowning while conscious, worrying about your kids

Apparently four retrieved deceased and two declared deceased in hospital

 

[XWu]

Apparently four retrieved deceased and two declared deceased in hospital

Was a bit miffed that people who managed to capture the moment before the crash continued recording the video for a period of time, and the people within 20m of the crash seemed to walk on instead of running towards (to help) or away (worried about danger) from the site where the piece landed on a park area (they would have nway to be sure in a flash to know that piece of falling debris had people in it or not) . Hope they ended doing the right thing lending a hand or call emergency services at the very least

 

[RooFlyer]

Was a bit miffed that people who managed to capture the moment before the crash continued recording the video for a period of time, and the people within 20m of the crash seemed to walk on instead of running towards (to help) or away (worried about danger) from the site where the piece landed on a park area

personally, I’d give them a break. I’m not aware of the piece that landed in the park only the two that landed in the river. The people you see next to the park in the mid ground probably wouldn’t have heard anything and the actual splash was behind trees and stuff and quite a way away. I mean even if they did see it they would’ve stopped and looked even if they chose not to do anything.

And as for the guy taking the video, I think you’re referring to, he’s hardly in a position to do anything seeing as he did that the things fell into the river quite a way away . It took more than a few seconds for the "oh my god’s"to be heard as people processed what it happened, and then the guy started walking that direction.

 

[Scr77]

The footage on the news tonight is amazing. While the Helicopter is falling, it’s is missing tail, rotators have separated and cabin is upside down. At first I thought it may have hit a power line but then realised the aircraft was falling from a great height. Footage makes It looks like it fell apart mid flight!

 

[Quickstatus]

While the Helicopter is falling, it’s is missing tail, rotators have separated and cabin is upside down

Yes the main rotor separated and the helicopter fell in an upside down manner. The tail rotor also missing. Some suggest the separation of the main rotor cut off the tail. It fell like a rock.

 

[karen blancfield]

About a month ago, I asked if anyone here could recommend a NYC helicopter company as I’ve offered to shout my two adult nieces.

I didn’t get any helpful replies but today I’ve suggested they use the money at their next stop to visit Mayan ruins in Mexico. They agree….

 

[jb747]

Loss of the complete main rotor disc is extraordinary. The video isn’t clear but there seems to be something substantial attached to the middle of the falling rotor. Gearbox?

 

[markis10]

Loss of the complete main rotor disc is extraordinary

Not common but does happen on long rangers , often after a tail strike ie https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/AO-2022-034 Final_0.pdf

 

[jb747]

Not common but does happen on long rangers , often after a tail strike ie https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/AO-2022-034 Final_0.pdf

Good find. I went looking for examples, but didn't find any. That leads us to discussion of "mast bumping", which I think is only an issue with teetering heads (as used in Jetranger, and Iroquois). Straitman will be the one who knows about this sort of thing, but my understanding is that it can be induced in extreme turbulence, or by large, abrupt control inputs. From the example above, the birdstrike itself won't cause it, but the pilot's reaction might.

 

[Quickstatus]

YouTuber blancolirio discusses this in his latest video.

The video suggests the main rotor separated with what seems to be the transmission. Suggesting something catastrophic occurred not at the rotor/mast (ALA axle of the rotor) but in the transmission/tansmission mounts. This could also cause the tail rotor to depart.

One suggesting is the transmission seized up.

 

[jb747]

YouTuber blancolirio discusses this in his latest video.

The video suggests the main rotor separated with what seems to be the transmission. Suggesting something catastrophic occurred not at the rotor/mast (ALA axle of the rotor) but in the transmission/tansmission mounts. This could also cause the tail rotor to depart.

One suggesting is the transmission seized up.

But if you read the ATSB accident report above, that seemingly involved mast bumping and breakup, the gearbox remained attached to the mast and rotor.

"The main rotor system, including the transmission cowling, gearbox, and main rotor blades, was located about 68 m to the west in a heavily wooded, sloping escarpment. The teetering main rotor head was still attached to the transmission with multiple severed control rods attached to the transmission mounting structure."

I doubt that a transmission would seize immediately, without any prior warning at all. A mounting point on the other hand...

 

[Quickstatus]

I doubt that a transmission would seize immediately,

There would be warning signals before hand but failure when it happens is often sudden catastrophic - the Ospreys come to mind.

 

[jb747]

There would be warning signals before hand but failure when it happens is often sudden catastrophic - the Ospreys come to mind.

The Ospreys didn't go from ops normal to failure instantly, which is what seems to have happened here. You'd expect a period of time between getting a chip light/loss of oil pressure/high oil temperature. Now that time might be short, but I expect it to be measured in minutes, not seconds. The ops manual for the aircraft says to land ASAP for any of those three warnings. I know of one gearbox failure here, in an RAN Wessex. They did crash whilst attempting to get to shore, but they were low and relatively slow. Sadly that still resulted in the loss of a crewman.

 

[markis10]

YouTuber blancolirio discusses this in his latest video.

The video suggests the main rotor separated with what seems to be the transmission. Suggesting something catastrophic occurred not at the rotor/mast (ALA axle of the rotor) but in the transmission/tansmission mounts. This could also cause the tail rotor to depart.

One suggesting is the transmission seized up.

There have been three known transmission mount failures in the long ranger, all resulted in 100% survival rate. The jetranger/long ranger has for a long time been the safest aircraft in the world by hours flown, glad I learnt to fly on one.

 

[straitman]

A few of us were talking about this last night. I have very limited experience with Jet Ranger/Long Ranger however the others I was talking with have a lot more time on type. Without actually knowing any real facts the consensus was that there was probably a tail rotor loss or tail boom failure that them caused the main rotor to rip off as it was clearly still spinning and not attached to the main gear box as it fell.

As I said that is speculation but the probability of losing a main rotor first is unbelievably low.

A little background info: A loss of tail rotor thrust can be recoverable however if you lose the tail rotor and/or tail rotor gear box the centre of gravity change is so great it is not recoverable.


** A little unrelated side note: Once, a long time ago I taught an F-111 pilot how to do tail rotor failures in a Huey. After we landed he got out and kissed the ground.

 

[SYD]

As I said that is speculation but the probability of losing a main rotor first is unbelievably low.

Why?

Metal fatigue can strike anywhere if not detected early.

Granted, there must be a lot of flying hours across all aircraft of type flying!