The future of flying

[The Penitent Man]

It was a family with three children and the pilot. Six people.

God bless.

Helicopter crash in Hudson River kills all 6 aboard

Six people died when a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon. Officials said the dead included a family from Spain as well as the pilot.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[budoslavic]

This is sad. An entire family members from Spain were killed in the helicopter crash.

 

[TruckDriver9]

 

[Cooper]

^The pilot there, what's her name?

 

[Cooper]

This is sad. An entire family members from Spain were killed in the helicopter crash.

The rotor blade came off and the chopper dropped like a stone. Usually in case of engine shutdown the rotors will slow down the fall to the point where the passengers could survive the crash, not the case here. Bad mechanical failure, either poor maintenance or a pretty small chance of foul play, if someone wanted the Spanish CEO dead.

 

[RedLagoon]

The rotor blade came off and the chopper dropped like a stone. Usually in case of engine shutdown the rotors will slow down the fall to the point where the passengers could survive the crash, not the case here. Bad mechanical failure, either poor maintenance or a pretty small chance of foul play, if someone wanted the Spanish CEO dead.

My first thought was foul play could be in place but didn't want to post out of respect for the victims but that looked more like a small bomb or whatever on that chopper, rotor blades don't just "come off" unless there was some insane maintenance negligence. Like you said even if an engine fails you will still have lift from the rotor blades and you can glide the thing down quickly in autorotation.

The crash looked very unnatural. RIP, what a waste.

 

[ed plrbs unm]

My first thought was foul play could be in place but didn't want to post out of respect for the victims but that looked more like a small bomb or whatever on that chopper, rotor blades don't just "come off" unless there was some insane maintenance negligence. Like you said even if an engine fails you will still have lift from the rotor blades and you can glide the thing down quickly in autorotation.

The crash looked very unnatural. RIP, what a waste.

What appears to be complete main rotor separation is leading to mast bumping as a possible cause:

 

[Cooper]

The fact that the passenger killed was a high-profile businessman increases the possibility of foul play, though an accident is still a lot more likely at this point, barring more information - Occam's.

This being said,

 

[Dusty]

 

[Iakobos]

Is it supposed to be the pilot's fault that the helicopter fell apart in flight?

 

[HoaxWhisperer]

Is it supposed to be the pilot's fault that the helicopter fell apart in flight?

The video in e plrbs unm's post describes how that can happen. And operator error can definitely play a role in mechanical failures of all sorts

 

[Iakobos]

The video in e plrbs unm's post describes how that can happen. And operator error can definitely play a role in mechanical failures of all sorts

And mechanical failures can be completely outside the hands of the pilot and usually are. It's not impossible that pilot error played a role in this accident. But it is highly disrespectful to the dead pilot and passengers to make assumptions to push a narrative when the facts of the case are not known.

 

[Cooper]

^Pilot is a US Navy vet, not some uptalking 25yo girl boss.

 

[budoslavic]