More than a year after a tourist helicopter crashed into the Hudson River off New York City, newly released documents from the National Transportation Safety Board indicate that birds likely brought the aircraft down. The crash killed all six people on board, and the finding points to a bird strike as the probable cause of the disaster over the water.
Investigators say that large birds struck the helicopter's main and back rotors, and that both rotors separated from the aircraft as a result. According to the board's account, it was not a single bird but a flock, with multiple impacts on the helicopter that created enough damage to send it out of control. The remains of several birds were found lodged in the wreckage.
The sequence was captured in dramatic fashion. A rotor was seen flying off before the helicopter plunged into the river, and video recorded the aircraft breaking apart and falling from the sky. The images underscored how quickly the flight went from a sightseeing tour to a catastrophe in full view of onlookers along the waterfront.
Those killed were a family visiting from Spain and the pilot flying them. The group included a couple and three of their children, aged four, eight and ten. All six people aboard died when the helicopter came down, making it one of the deadliest recent crashes involving a New York sightseeing flight.
The finding drew attention to the wider risk posed by birds to aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration has warned that bird strikes, while less common for helicopters than for fixed-wing planes, can cause significant damage. The same hazard was behind the 2009 landing on the Hudson, when a flock of geese forced an airliner to set down on the same river, though in that case everyone survived.
The crash has also become the subject of legal action. Relatives of the family sued the charter company, New York Helicopter Tours, for negligence, alleging that it failed to perform required maintenance and an inspection on the helicopter. The lawsuit raises questions about the condition of the aircraft alongside the bird-strike finding at the center of the investigation.
As of the release of the NTSB documents, there had been no response from the family on the report. The board's findings add detail to an event that drew wide attention when it happened, and they are likely to feed continued scrutiny of safety practices in the busy airspace used by tour helicopters over and around New York City.