Months before a tourist helicopter crashed into New York City’s East River, killing five, pilots for the company warned their bosses about safety issues but their concerns went unheeded, according to the New York Times.
“We are setting ourselves up for failure,” one pilot wrote to FLyNYON’s management regarding poorly fitting harnesses. The company offers flights on helicopters with the doors removed or open and puts passengers on harnesses attached to tethers so they can lean out the edge of the cabin and take unobstructed photos.
The passengers recovered by police and fire department divers in the March 11 crash had to be removed from tight harnesses while they were upside down, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. The pilot, who managed to free himself, was the sole survivor. The NTSB said the harness used by the passengers had not been previously evaluated by the FAA.
"It took awhile for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly as fast as they could," Nigro said. "It was a great tragedy that we had here."
Four days prior to the accident, one pilot recommended new tools that would allow passengers to more easily free themselves in case of an emergency.
Patrick Day, the chief executive of FLyNYON, in a statement to the Times rejected the idea “that anyone at FlyNYON did not heed issues raised by pilots at Liberty Helicopter and that we failed to respond to safety concerns.”
The aircraft was owned by Liberty Helicopters but chartered by FlyNYON.
Attorney Debra Katz, an attorney representing several pilots at Liberty Helicopters, told CNN safety has been “a concern amongst my clients for a while now.”
"They also have a tremendous concern about retaliation within both companies,” she added.
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