Remember the NYC Sightseeing helicopter ditching that killed five passengers who were unable to exit the aircraft as they were wearing safety harnesses with tethers?
Accident happened in 2018 and the Accident Report was issues in December of 2019.
In that accident the floats partially inflated when only one bottle discharged due to a system anomaly and in the report it was stated that resulted in partial inflation of all floats but less than full inflation would not result in the aircraft staying upright.
From that Report's recommendation to the US FAA. (My bolding of the first sentence)
Review the activation system designs of Federal Aviation Administration-approved rotorcraft emergency flotation systems for deficiencies that may preclude their proper deployment, such as a lack of a means to identify high pull forces on manual activation handles or inadequate guidance on the intended use of the activation system, and require corrective actions based on the review findings.
A question I would ask is exactly what kind of review did the FAA conduct?
Other findings in that Report noted the lack of adequate and proper oversight of the Flight Operations of the Operator by the FAA.
Point of this post.....what role does the Certification Authorities play in the design, testing and approval of Helicopter Emergency Floatation Systems?
Will we see similar language coming forth in the accident report of the ditching in this tragedy if it is found there was a design failure in the float system?