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

New York Times

15-04-2025

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.