Helicopter company closes doors after fatal Hudson crash

New York Helicopter Tours shut down all operations after a fatal crash killed five passengers and a pilot last week, according to a Sunday night statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the FAA to pull the tour company’s operating certificate earlier that day. New York Helicopter Tours needs to stop all flights until an investigation is complete, he wrote, adding that people’s lives depended on it.

The fatal Thursday flight carried a pilot and a family of five visiting from Spain on a sightseeing tour. Bystander footage showed the helicopter free-falling upside-down into the New Jersey side of the river. Crash footage also appeared to show the chopper’s rotator blades detached and falling separately from the fuselage, an incident investigators later confirmed. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said investigators needed time before definitively sharing more details of the accident. 

Have investigators given any updates?Divers continue searching for debris from the helicopter. On Monday, they recovered the helicopter’s main rotor system, including the transmission and roof beam. They also recovered the tail rotor system, according to an update from NTSB investigators. The craft did not have any flight recorders, and none of the helicopter’s avionics data, which would include information related to communication and navigation, aided in the investigation the NTSB said in an earlier update. The Bell 206 helicopter flew seven other tours earlier in the day before the fatal mid-afternoon tour.

Dig deeper: Read my Friday report for more details on the crash.