Accidental bump of emergency button may have led to deadly East River crash
NEW YORK — A passenger’s bag might have inadvertently hit an emergency fuel shut-off button and caused the helicopter crash Sunday night that killed five people, according to a report.
Pilot Richard Vance, 33, told investigators that the mishap led to the crash into New York’s East River about 7 p.m. Sunday, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Monday.
Five people and the pilot were on a Liberty Helicopters aircraft chartered for a private photo shoot.
Mr. Vance was able to deploy a raft and get himself to safety. He made a mayday call to LaGuardia Airport saying that the aircraft experienced engine failure.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the rescue was hampered by the fact that the passengers were tightly harnessed. “People had to be cut out,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was headed to New York Monday trying to determine the cause of the crash.
Sen. Charles Schumer called on the FAA to issue an emergency order to force Liberty to cease until their safety record and the circumstances of the crash are fully investigated.
The five passengers killed in the crash were identified by a police source as Brian McDaniel, a firefighter from Dallas; Trevor Cadigan, a video journalist originally from Dallas; Carla Vallejos Blanco, a tourist from Argentina; and two helicopter employees, Tristan Hill and Daniel Thompson.
Photographer Eric Adams said he was in the safety briefing before the fatal flight and rode another chopper.
“It was a doors-off flight, with harnesses,” he wrote on Twitter. “They would have been difficult to remove in an emergency, since you’re attached from the rear. They provide knives to slice harnesses but didn’t physically point out where they were once we had them on. We had flotation devices too.”