Low-flying tour helicopters hovering over the skies of New York City are a common sight, but they may soon be a thing of the past if one lawmaker has her way.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she wants to limit or possibly eliminate the flights after six people were tragically killed in a tour helicopter on Thursday. It follows a catastrophic tour helicopter crash into the East River in 2018, killing five people.
Malliotakis stated that the tour helicopters have long been a source of aggravation for her Staten Island constituents, and Thursday’s event only exacerbates their concerns, considering that the helicopters frequently fly over highly populated neighborhoods. The tragic sightseeing plane crashed into the water on the New Jersey beach, only feet from the land.
“Staten Island residents remain deeply concerned about the frequent low-flying tour helicopters whose flight paths continue to frequently pass over their neighborhoods at all hours of the day,” Malliotakis wrote in an email.
“To avoid another tragedy, these tourist helicopter flights over NYC must be more heavily regulated and restricted, if not discontinued entirely,” she added, expressing her condolences to the victims’ families.
Malliotakis stated that she had already raised the problem with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and the Biden administration. In October, she alleged that some operators were breaching FAA guidelines by flying at low and potentially dangerous altitudes, while the noise they made enraged people. There is no evidence that the flight on Thursday broke any FAA regulations.
Tour helicopters are extremely popular in New York City, particularly among tourists seeking a unique aerial view of prominent monuments such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Central Park. Tens of thousands of people attend the excursions each year.
Thursday’s tragedy occurred around 3:15 p.m., when a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter operated by New York Helicopter Tours broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River.
Eyewitness video shows the aircraft’s body plunging through the air and into the water upside down along the Jersey City beachfront in New Jersey. The aircraft’s main and rear rotors appeared to have disconnected and splashed into the ocean.
The reason of the crash has yet to be determined, both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have acknowledged they are investigating the fatal occurrence.
The victims were five members of the same family: Agustin Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children. The 36-year-old pilot also died.
This was not the first tour helicopter to crash in the city.
In 2018, a Eurocopter AS350 B2 operated by Liberty Helicopters for FlyNYON crashed into the East River, killing all five passengers while the pilot miraculously survived.
The NTSB determined that a passenger’s harness tether mistakenly actuated the gasoline shutoff lever, causing engine failure. According to the CIA, the passengers survived the water landing, but the harness tether system stopped them from immediately exiting the sinking aircraft.