The New York city helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River had a mechanical problem months before it separated in the air and killed the six on board, including a family of tours that they visit from Spain, according to the records.
The unfortunate Bell206L-4 Longranger IV plane, owned and operated by the New York helicopter, experienced a mechanical problem with its transmission assembly last September, according to the data of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The records show that the condemned helicopter was built in 2004 and already registered 12,728 hours of flight time when it was forced to repair.
An investigation is being carried out to determine what the plane captivated to leave the sky and immerse yourself in the river. The probe will combine through the pilot’s experience, the still complete remains and the Big Apple company that makes the tourist tours.
The researchers will also review the maintenance work that was carried out on the condemned plane, including the completion of two safety aircraft directives recently that the FAA issued in the Bell 206L model helicopters.
The Federal Agency issued the first directive in December 2022 and requested the inspection and possible replacement of the main rotor blades due to the “delamination”, a problem with the internal layers of the separation defects of the blade.
The problem, if not solved, could make the rotor blade fail.
A second directive, issued in May 2023, required the test and the possible replacement of the axes of the tail rotor in eight models, including the one involved in the deadly shipwreck on Thursday, according to the FAA, which issued the alert after a helicopter lost a tail rotor drive due to a joint failure.
The rotors on the condemned plane are still missing, the president of the National Security Board Jennifer Homendy said on Friday. New York Police divers are still in the cabin for several shattered cakes of the ship.
The cooling images captured the plane that crumbled in the air before connected to the river, with at least the rotor still turning while other parts of the helicopter splashed in several directions.
The helicopter was removed from the center of Manhattan in the center of Skyport at approximately 1:50 pm, with the Siemens Agustin Escober executive, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal and the three young children: Augustin, Mercedes and Victor,.
The family, who came from Barcelona, Spain, was flown by Sean Johnson, 36, a veteran from Navy Seal who recently moved to the Big Apple for his aviation career not yet young.
The helicopter crashed about 25 minutes on his aerial tour, said Homendy.
But this is not the first time that the Tour company has seen one of its airplanes in the same murky waters.
A Bell 206 helicopter that transported four Swedish tourists crashed in the Hudson when the plane lost energy in June 2013, with the pilot and four family members surviving miraculously.
The New York helicopter CEO, Michael Roth, told Wall Street Journal at that time that the helicopter underwent daily routine inspections, but “I had no idea why” the plane did not work half the flight.
Now, 12 years later, Roth has again “no idea” what happened.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” Roth told The Post after the fatal accident.
“The only thing I know when you see a video of the helicopter that falls, that the main blades of the rotor are in the helicopter. And I host something like that in my 30 years in the business, in the helicopter business,” he continued.
“The only thing I could guess, I have no idea, is that it had a bird’s blow or the blades Mainor Blador failed. I have no idea. I don’t know. This is horrible. But you have to remember something, these are machines and break.”
The helicopter received an aircraft certificate in 2016 that was valid until 2029, according to the records.
With publication cables
