toptobottom sez:
From reading the very informative contributions in this thread from those member who are familiar however, it seems clear to me that this was an accident waiting to happen and without some improvement in safety regulations, there is little doubt that a similar accident will happen again, sooner or later...
If it indeed was an "accident waiting to happen," then we've waited quite a long time! Sightseeing helicopter tours have been going on from the W30th Street Heliport pretty much uninterrupted since the 1960's with no mid-airs. The New York TCA was instituted, in...oh, 1971 or so, and the exclusion was there from the beginning. So it's not fair to say this was an "accident waiting to happen."
I suppose if we wait long enough, every accident possible will occur.
Before beginning my career as a pilot, I managed the W30th Street Heliport briefly in the mid-70's while a small operator ran tours from there. During that time I saw planes big and small transiting the corridor. The biggest was a lumbering 707...God knows who's it was (an amazing sight!). And Philip-Morris's G-II came zooming down once. This was long before we had the CTAF noted on the chart.
Whatever, I don’t understand why my fellow aviators would rather continue to run the gauntlet than have extra controls introduced, even though these controls could protect them from a similar situation.
Maybe because more controls are not needed? It's not a gauntlet. It's no worse than the beehive of fish-spotters that congregate in certain places along the Louisiana coast. It's no worse than the traffic in and around the Destin, Florida area on a busy weekend.
Keep your eyes open and outside the cockpit, guys. There are too many well-meaning people out there (pilots included, strangely) who would love to see more and more regulations heaped upon us.
...As if more rules regulations can prevent mid-airs.