Investigators say there were no flight recorders on the tour helicopter that crashed into New York City’s Hudson River on Thursday, leaving an entire family and its pilot dead, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The agency made the announcement on Saturday regarding the Bell 206 L-4 helicopter that is the focus of the investigation, Fox News reported.
“As of Saturday night, no onboard video recorders or camera recorders were recovered, and none of the helicopter avionics onboard recorded information that could be used for the investigation,” the outlet said, noting teams have been evaluating the aircraft’s flight control system.
The crash that happened just after 3:00 p.m. on Thursday took the lives of an entire family that included two adults and three children who were visiting from Spain, along with the pilot, Breitbart News reported.
The Fox article said divers recovered the helicopter’s fuselage, part of its tail boom, horizontal stabilizer finlets, and its vertical fin. However, crews are still looking for the helicopter’s rotor, main gear box, tail rotor, and the bigger piece of its tail boom.
“Side-scanning sonar is being used to identify potential locations of wreckage, and recovery operations will continue Sunday,” the outlet said, adding that officials with NTSB have been working with the helicopter’s operator, New York Helicopter Charter Inc. on the investigation.
Video footage shows the moment the helicopter crashed into the river. A loud noise was heard as people walking nearby looked on in shock:
According to a Reuters report published on Sunday, “The helicopter took off around 3 p.m. ET on Thursday from a downtown helicopter pad and flew north along the Hudson, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has said.”
“After reaching the George Washington Bridge, it turned south but crashed shortly afterwards, hitting the water upside down near Lower Manhattan, just off Jersey City, at about 3:15 p.m.,” the article continued.
The Breitbart News article highlighted the fact that the incident occurred after the fatal crash at Reagan International Airport in Washington, DC, that killed 67 people.
“On Thursday, at that very same airport, a taxiing jet struck a parked plane on the runway when their wings collided,” the article said.
