Fatal NYC helicopter crash prompts GOP lawmaker to call for ending popular tourist flights

Low-flying circuit helicopters hovering implicit the skies of New York City are a acquainted sight, but they could soon beryllium a happening of the past if 1 congresswoman gets her way.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she wants to rein successful oregon adjacent halt the flights altogether aft six radical tragically mislaid their lives successful a circuit chopper connected Thursday. It follows a fatal circuit chopper formation that crashed into the East River successful 2018, sidesplitting 5 passengers.

Malliotakis said that the circuit helicopters person agelong been a root of vexation for her Staten Island constituents and Thursday's incidental lone deepens their unease, fixed the helicopters often alert implicit densely populated areas. The doomed sightseeing craft plummeted into the h2o adjacent the New Jersey shoreline, conscionable feet from land.

"Staten Island residents stay profoundly acrophobic astir the predominant low-flying circuit helicopters whose formation paths proceed to often walk implicit their neighborhoods astatine each hours of the day," Malliotakis said successful a statement.

SIEMENS EXECUTIVE, WIFE AND 3 KIDS ID'D AS HUDSON RIVER HELICOPTER CRASH VICTIMS

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she wants to rein successful oregon adjacent halt the tourer chopper flights successful New York City altogether. (Al Drago/Getty Images | New York Helicopter Tours, LLC)

"To forestall different tragedy, these tourer chopper flights implicit NYC indispensable beryllium much heavy regulated and restricted, if not travel to an extremity entirely," she said, portion sending her condolences to the families of the victims. 

Malliotakis said she has raised the contented with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previously, arsenic good arsenic with the Biden administration. In October, she claimed that immoderate operators were violating FAA rules by flying astatine debased and perchance unsafe levels portion the sound they created was infuriating residents. There is nary grounds that the formation connected Thursday violated immoderate FAA rules. 

Tour helicopters are precise fashionable successful New York City, particularly among tourists looking for a unsocial aerial presumption of iconic landmarks similar the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and Central Park. Tens of thousands of radical instrumentality the tours each year.

The Spanish household pictured connected committee the chopper earlier it crashed into the Hudson River successful New York City connected Thursday.  (New York Helicopter Tours, LLC)

VIDEO APPEARS TO SHOW FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE HELICOPTER CRASHED INTO NYC'S EAST RIVER

Thursday's calamity unfolded astatine astir 3:15 p.m., erstwhile a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV chopper being operated by New York Helicopter Tours came isolated and plummeted into the Hudson River.

Eyewitness video shows the assemblage of the craft tumbling done the aerial and into the h2o upside down adjacent the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey. The aircraft's main and rear rotor appeared to person been detached and could beryllium seen splashing into the water.

A origin of the clang has yet to beryllium determined, arsenic the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed they are looking into the deadly incident.

The victims included 5 members of the aforesaid family: Agustin Escobar; his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal; and their 3 children. The 36-year-old aviator besides mislaid his life.

The chopper from Thursday's clang is seen floating aft it plunged into the Hudson River adjacent Lower Manhattan. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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It wasn't the archetypal circuit chopper to clang successful the city.

In 2018, a Eurocopter AS350 B2 operated by Liberty Helicopters for FlyNYON crashed into the East River, resulting successful the deaths of each 5 passengers portion the aviator miraculously survived. 

The NTSB determined that a passenger's harness tether inadvertently activated the substance shutoff lever, starring to motor failure. The bureau said that the h2o landing itself was survivable for the passengers, but the harness tether strategy prevented them from rapidly escaping the ill-fated sinking aircraft.