Federal officials on Friday stressed the importance of regulation for private air tour operators in light of Thursday’s deadly aviation disaster in the Hudson River.
The crash, which involved a New York sightseeing helicopter, killed the pilot and a family of tourists from Spain.
“We believe in one level of safety, strongly,“ Homendy said. ”And that may not look like regulation for a major commercial airline, but we do believe that they should be regulated.”
The Bell 206 helicopter was owned by New York Helicopter, a tour company governed under Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, according to the NTSB chair. This specific type of “revenue passenger operation,” however, is regulated under Part 91.
Homendy said that the NTSB previously issued an entire report about its recommendations on improving air tour regulations.
“We have issued recommendations in the past on recorders, crash-resistant recorders. We’ve issued numerous regular recommendations on safety management systems, in particular regulations for Part 91,” she said, adding that it’s too early to say what the NTSB would recommend as part of this investigation.
In February 2021, the agency held a public board meeting to review those recommendations for stricter regulatory requirements for air tour operators.
The pilot who was operating the sightseeing helicopter had a commercial pilot certificate and logged 788 accumulated hours of total flight time as of March 29, according to Homendy.
Based on flight tracking software, the aircraft flew south before turning to fly north along the Manhattan shoreline up the Hudson River. At 3:08 p.m., the helicopter reached the George Washington Bridge and then turned again to fly south along the New Jersey shoreline. Shortly after, the helicopter lost control and plunged into the Hudson River.
Federal officials are also urging the public to provide video and images that could assist in their investigation into Thursday’s deadly helicopter crash. Images should be sent to [email protected].
Homendy said that any footage could be useful for their probe into the helicopter crash. She used the example of a video that was previously provided to the agency that significantly helped investigators probing a mid-air collision in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Investigators continue to comb through the wreckage of the Hudson River crash. The main components of the aircraft are still missing, including the main rotor, main transmission, roof structure, and tail structure.
Seventeen NTSB personnel, 10 of whom are investigators, remain on scene to probe the crash. Homendy addressed concerns about whether the number of NTSB investigators currently working on the case has been impacted under the latest federal government cuts.
“We have not experienced any personnel losses other than typical retirements,” she said.
The investigation is still in its early stages, and a preliminary cause of the crash has not been determined.
