Originally Posted by
Airbubba
And why would five people be passengers on a 'photo' flight? It turns out that Manhattan tourist helo flights on Sunday have been banned by local authorities since 2016.
So, the scam (in New York City no less, I'm shocked I tell you
) is to call the flight a photo flight and operate from New Jersey. Since folks on a photo flight are 'journalists' you can't restrict their First Amendment rights now can you?
Anyway, one of the folks was a journalist but the others were tourists and helo company employees.
From one of the local tabloids:
Journalist, tourists among dead in East River helicopter crash - NY Daily News
Loopholes or no loopholes, some serious questions will be asked in court as to why the ‘journalists’ were using harnesses without a quick release mechanism. The answer will most like be (or at least subpoenad emails or txts to the effect) saying that they don’t want an untrained monkey pullling the quick release and falling out of the helicopter.
Instead they strapped everyone into the aircraft without adequate training to extricate themselves, as evidenced by everyone being dead except for the pilot.
I hope the company burns for this.