A helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River in New York City on Thursday, killing all six people on board, lacked flight recorders, according to federal investigators.
“No onboard video recorders or camera recorders have been recovered and none of the helicopter avionics onboard recorded information that could be used for the investigation,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in an update on Saturday.
Divers from the New York Police Department continue to search for helicopter’s main rotor, main gear box, tail rotor and a large portion of the tail boom, the agency added in the update.
Investigators said the tour helicopter’s last major inspection was on March 1, and that on the day of the crash, it completed seven previous tour flights.
Officials are still trying to determine the cause of the Thursday afternoon crash, which killed Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, 49; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39; their three children, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10; and pilot Seankese Johnson, 36, a former Navy SEAL.
A ceremony was held Saturday on the Hudson to honor the victims where flowers were thrown into the river.
“They left together. They left without suffering,” Joan Camprubi, Mercè Camprubí Montal’s brother, told reporters.
“You have 8.5 million New Yorkers who want to say to the family members and to the wider Spanish community that we are here with you, and this symbolic gesture is our way of knowing and acknowledging that our words cannot bring back their family members, but it is our way of saying as New Yorkers, we stand united with this family during this moment of grief, and their grief is our grief,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams added.
On Sunday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York called on the Federal Aviation Administration to ground the tour company that operated the helicopter, New York Helicopters, Inc., until the federal investigation into the crash was complete.
“The company was operating under the lowest bar of safety,” he said, adding that multiple people have died on flights with the company.
Schumer also said the Bell 206 copter that crashed was 21 years old and called on the aviation agency to conduct more surprise inspections before takeoff.
“These inspections are like food inspections, showing up unannounced to make sure everything is on the level,” he said.
“At New York Helicopter Tours, the safety and well-being of our passengers and crew has always been the cornerstone of our operations,” the company wrote in a statement on its website. “Our immediate focus is supporting the families and their loved ones affected by this tragedy, as well as fully cooperating with the FAA and NTSB investigations. These agencies have asked us to respect the investigative process by referring all press inquiries to them for any further comment.”
