A look at some of New York City's deadliest helicopter crashes
NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) – Following Thursday's deadly helicopter crash into the Hudson River, there is some renewed scrutiny towards these types of flights.
Prior to Thursday's incident, there had been three prior deadly helicopter crashes in the last 20 years. Among them, a sightseeing flight crash in 2009 resulted in the most lives lost.
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In August 2009, nine people were killed when a helicopter carrying Italian tourists and a small, private plane crashed into each other over the Hudson River. Investigators said the helicopter was flying too high.
Just two years after that, a family of three died when the helicopter carrying them went down over the East River.
More recently, in 2018, five people drowned when a Liberty Helicopters flight that offered 'open door' experiences crashed into the East River. Liberty Helicopters had also hosted the tourist flight that crashed in 2009.
In response to the 2009 incident, the Federal Aviation Administration tightened control of the airspace by adding further separation between low-altitude flights like helicopters from plane flights over the Hudson River.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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