A preliminary cause in the horrifying Hudson River helicopter crash likely will take “quite some time” to determine, said a top federal safety official Friday — as she revealed the doomed craft’s rotors still remain missing.
A 17-person investigative team has started the laborious task of piecing together what led to the New York City sightseeing helicopter to break apart midair Thursday before crashing into the water, killing six, said National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.
Homendy said nothing is off the table as investigators will comb through the pilot’s experience, the company that runs the sightseeing tours and the still-incomplete wreckage.
3 National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy offers an update on the investigation into the deadly Hudson River helicopter crash. SARAH YENESEL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“We do not have a preliminary cause, that takes time,” she said.
“We will not speculate on cause – ever – but will not be determining any sort of preliminary or probable cause at the scene of an accident.”
The Bell 206L4 helicopter itself has been pulled from the Hudson River, but NYPD divers are still combing the depths for several missing pieces from the craft, Homendy said.
“We are looking for the main rotor and the tail rotor right now,” she said, noting the main transmission has also not been recovered.
The New York Helicopter sightseeing craft took off from Manhattan’s Downtown Skyport at roughly 1:50 p.m., with Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three young children — Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4 — in tow, officials said.
The family, who hailed from Barcelona, Spain, were flown by Sean Johnson, 36, a Navy SEAL veteran who recently moved to the Big Apple for his still-young aviation career.
Johnson had obtained his commercial pilot certificate to fly helicopters in August 2023, Federal Aviation Administration records show.
He appeared to have 788 hours of total flight experience as of March 29, Homendy said.
3 The crash killed the Escobar family and the copter pilot. New York Helicopter Tours LLC
“We still need to calculate flight time on that Bell helicopter – and I’ll have more information on that hopefully tomorrow – because he was previously flying a Robinson (R44),” she said.
The helicopter crashed about 25 minutes into its air tour, Homendy said.
Harrowing video shows the helicopter drop like a stone into the river, with at least one rotor still spinning in the air.
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Homendy said the videos circulating on social media are helpful for investigators, but noted they were taken from a very far distance.
She implored potential witnesses with additional photos and videos to contact the NTSB.
“We’re hoping to get some additional videos that provide us information,” she said. “We don’t know what people have recorded or taken pictures of that could be helpful in an investigation.”
The NTSB has raised concerns over sightseeing helicopters, including in New York City, in the past, Homendy noted.
3 Video captured the moment the doomed copter spiraled to the ground. Bruce Wall
A recent NTSB study found that many flight operators had exploited regulatory loopholes to avoid oversight, such as the company involved in the 2018 East River helicopter crash that killed five tourists.
Homendy noted, however, it’s too early to say what recommendations could arise from the crash investigation.
“We did issue a set of recommendations to improve safety,” Homendy said, but emphasized, “Those are recommendations, not regulations.”