Helicopter down in East River, NYC
 

Sky news reporting that a helicopter has crashed in to the East River in Mahattan.

https://news.sky.com/story/helicopte...apped-11286757

Looks like a Squirrel. Video footage here

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/11...ports-say.html

Obviously an AStar... popouts were inflated prior to water contact... so why the uncommanded roll to the right?? or was it intentional to stop the MR??

Mmmmm ...

Oooh nasty ... might it have been a hydraulics related issue do you think ?

:eek:

My Condolences to the passengers families ....

There was a Mayday call reporting Engine Failure.

Ahhhh ...

that'd be it then ..

It looks like it would've been ideal to whack on the Main Rotor Brake as soon as touchdown occurred. It would stop the blades whacking the water faster as it rolled, and a quicker exit for passengers.
I wonder if that is a requirement during ditching?
Condolences to the ones who didn't make it.

Rotorbrake is never applied during a ditching as this will cause the helicopter to yaw making the whole situation worse. You wait until the blades stop turning and sometimes you're even lucky enough and the helicopter will stay upright. The egress procedure we get taught in the military is to wait until all violent motion stops before exiting the aircraft to avoid getting hit by the turning blades on your way out. We have to go through lots of training to be able to execute an egress successfully. And I can say from experience that being upside down strapped into your seat underwater is not the most comfortable position to be in. For an untrained person this doesn't end well most of the time.

the speed they hit the water could likely have blown one side.

Looked like a reasonable auto into water, maybe a little more impact than desired that damaged the right float, causing the eventual rollover. Flat water, may have made it more difficult to judge the flare height and contributed to the hard impact.

the live video i saw, they had the aircraft tied off at a dock inverted. all six bags still inflated.

Two dead three in critical condition, pilot survived. It was a photo shoot mission.

RIP for those who lost their lives

Ummmm ... no. Applying the rotor brake would cause the fuselage to rotate in the same direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBwF...ature=youtu.be

It sounds as though the harnesses the photographers were wearing made it difficult for them to get out.

Yep, N350LH called a MAYDAY, then 'East River Engine Failure' on LGA Tower helo freq 126.05. The controller asked him to 'say again' a couple of times. The controller asked if he needed any assistance, one of the other helos said 'it was a MAYDAY La Guardia!'.

Sounds like the pilot climbed out and was on top of the inverted helicopter when a boat arrived from N355AG's radio report of the scene.

The MAYDAY call is about 5:15 into this liveatc.net clip:

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kl...2018-2300Z.mp3

For some reason my web browser player seems to mark the same spot on the clip as 10:30 so check there if you can't find the engine failure report at 5:15.

Edited audio of the MAYDAY posted here: https://clyp.it/wobx3yfk

Thanks, removed.

This looks like one of the "Doors off" type flights for a photo shoot, where the pax are all tethered to the helicopter via harness, rather than a normal seat belt.

In the same direction as the blade turn. Yes I agree.

And there is no quick release for those harnesses? Wouldn’t that be extensively covered in the pax briefing?

With ‘no doors’ the egress should have been easier (once freed from harness). But let’s not forget cold water shock.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/n...ter-crash.html

:(

The commissioner said that the five passengers were "tightly harnessed" he didn't say what type of harness they were wearing.
We shouldn't just assume they were wearing a photographers harness unless it is standard procedure for Liberty to insist on one whenever the door is removed.

It is not uncommon for operators to operate doors off with a regular seatbelt.

Even with all the resources available in a capital city and despite being quickly on scene the last passenger apparently remained trapped for between 30-60 minutes.

This video shows police helicopter dropping divers.

MJB