re: Helicopter crash in Hudson River 6 deceased New video page 5

Oh I just realized I had responded to a tweet about a 2018 crash.

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I've never been on a helicopter, and I am pretty sure I never will.

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they're pretty damn cool to fly in once you forget that you don't have an option to glide if things turn to shite.

LINK /

read this story about Meridian helicopters. looks like they refurbish them. scary to think what happened knowing this.

shows sending one to FlyNYON in New York City wonder if this is copter that crashed!!!

Meridian Helicopters announced the completion and delivery of its 29th “tip-to-tail” refurbishment of a Bell 206L4 helicopter, sold to FlyNYON to support their air charter and tour operations in New York City.

This extensive project highlights Meridian’s dedication to delivering high-quality, turnkey aircraft solutions tailored to customer needs.

The six-month, 2,700-hour refurbishment process was comprehensive, including an overhaul of the engine and dynamic components. The upgrades resulted in a weighted time remaining of over 70 percent, ensuring reliable performance for years to come.

The airframe was stripped and repainted in a modern three-tone design, complemented by matching three-tone ultra-leather seating throughout the cabin.

Enhancing the aircraft’s interior, Meridian installed a state-of-the-art Garmin avionics suite with Bluetooth connectivity and full environmental controls from Air Comm.

Additionally, the helicopter was outfitted with a lightweight emergency pop-out float system to meet FlyNYON’s operational requirements.

Michael Bashlor, managing partner of Meridian Helicopters, stated: “We have a long relationship with FlyNYON through years of leasing helicopters. Meridian takes great pride in the fact that FlyNYON selected us to provide this beautiful Bell 206L4. Our goal with this aircraft was to deliver a turnkey solution — a lightweight VIP aircraft equipped with very specific equipment and options. We strived to deliver a like-new aircraft that exceeded expectations.”

Pat Day, CEO at FlyNYON, added: “We are very excited to be taking delivery of this beautiful 206L4. With its arrival, our fleet grows to seven helicopters, which will help to meet the 2025 demand of our loyal customers.”

Here's the article on the L4, just delivered in January.

LINK

quote:

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I've never been on a helicopter, and I am pretty sure I never will.

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Worked a summer job on the flight line at Fort Rucker way back when I was still a student at Auburn. A test pilot took me for a test run after maintenance on an OH13. He did a long autorotation down to about 100' or so. The test pilots had contest going to see who could autorotate the longest distance back wards.

Love your story but would have been kinda hard for the chopper today to auto-rotate down without rotor blades.

You can see them flipping through the air on the one video back and to the left of where the fuselage went into the drink

Three adults and three kids. Pilot and a family of five.

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FoxNews

A Spanish family, the father was an executive with Siemens, and had done other exec. jobs. Two were pulled from the wreckage, both died in hospital, one was a young boy.

I am going to weigh in as the board helicopter expert. Qualifications are 30 years working on Bell helicopters including the accident aircraft a Bell 206L4.

From the picture I saw with the circled transmission, mast, swashplate ,and main rotor blades, it is also a large chunk of the roof of the aircraft is attached to that section.

The transmission assembly is attached to the roof with five hard points and two up stops. There are two legs on each side (4 total) called dog bones which attach the transmission itself to the nodal beam on each side. Think of a leaf spring looking assembly with elastomers that is the nodal beam, it's job is to help dampen out vibration and give a smooth ride. The nodal beams are bolted to the roof on each side with multiple bolts.

To keep them transmission from moving side to side there is a assembly called a wishbone which mounts to two points on the rear of the transmission and to a assembly called an h mount which bolts through the roof. The transmission has two up stops which are gigantic bolts with large washers which limit the vertical movement of the transmission. For all those items to fail at once is just not believable. What is believable is a propagating roof cracks which caused it to be pulled backwards towards the tail boom, like opening a old style pull tab on a can. And as the whole assembly tilted backwards it allowed the main rotor blades to contact and sever the tail boom, which that impact finish ripping the roof and transmission assembly off of the aircraft. That is not survivable as we have seen. If anyone has any questions I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

We inspect the roof assembly and transmission mounting system every 100 and 300 hours where all those items attached. The roof assembly also gets closely checked where all those items are bolted through because cracks can happen. I have personally helped change the roof on multiple 206l airframes due to cracking or corrosion but nothing severe like that. The roof is made up of a aluminum composite construction two layers of aluminum sandwiching aluminum honeycomb composite between the two. Composites are quite strong but not bulletproof.

The amount of technology involved in actually trying to prevent a helicopter from losing complete control is enough for me to never want to get in one. New or refurbished.