NEW YORK | Helicopter Loses Rotors and Crashes into Hudson River — 6 Dead

[kellyhound]

some better footage of the debris falling and they found the rotor.

[data_probe]

Audio delay compensated version of the video, with audio adjusted to compensate for the speed of sound.

[MacAKM]

Update. Sounds like a very scummy operating company.

[Krusen72]

Originally Posted by Ady347

All aboard!

Brutal. The entire family gone.

[Hogmann]

Originally Posted by MacAKM

Update. Sounds like a very scummy operating [/url]

Agreed. You can't just fire your DO if you have a 135 certificate.

[Xploit Machine]

less 6 tariffs

[akham]

Originally Posted by Hogmann

Agreed. You can't just fire your DO if you have a 135 certificate.

Apparently the operator was (past tense) 135 certified, but the accident flight operated under 91. I guess loss of 135 made the company uneconomic, since (in theory) even without 135 they could continue those particular operations under 91.

Seems to me that this exception that allows revenue flights under 91 needs to go away.

[KillingJoke]

Originally Posted by Mr.NoCredit

Seriously. It looks like it was shot down missing the whole tail section. Crashed!?! Full plummet with zero controllability.

I’m really curious as to the why it’s damaged like that to begin with.

The two-bladed main rotor can, with strong inputs to the cyclic, get to a position where the main rotor literally cuts through the tail. The main rotor then separating from the shaft.

This can happen in certain winds/turbulence where the pilot over-compensates. It is possible there is some additional/alternate explanation, but this one seems positive, particularly as the aircraft was doubling back, and could have encountered its own wake turbulence.

[KillingJoke]

Originally Posted by data_probe

Audio delay compensated version of the video, with audio adjusted to compensate for the speed of sound.

Very helpful.

Wow---8 seconds of falling... 8 seconds of terror and confusion.

"Sounds like" main rotor impacted tail, breaking it off.

[MissBee]

Originally Posted by kellyhound

some better footage of the debris falling and they found the rotor.

Wow, several geese in that witness video. Many experts quickly ruled out a bird strike because they didn't see any birds in the initial videos released. Maybe a collision with birds, or the pilot evading a collison with birds, was the type of extreme maneuver that would cause the rotor blades to swing and slice off the tail.