After Crash, Inspectors Pay ‘Urgent Attention’ to Use of Harnesses

NEW YORK — Federal regulators said on Tuesday they would give “urgent attention” to the use of harnesses in aerial photography flights, two days after five passengers died when a tourist helicopter crashed in the East River.

The doomed passengers were all cinched with heavy-duty harnesses that served as tethers, allowing them to lean out the open doors of the helicopter to capture aerial images of New York City. Only the pilot, Richard Vance, who had transmitted a mayday call reporting “engine failure,” escaped the aircraft and survived after it hit the frigid water near Roosevelt Island on Sunday.

The five passengers — who ranged in age from 26 to 34 — drowned, the city’s chief medical examiner said Tuesday.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began inspecting the “substantially damaged” helicopter on Tuesday and interviewing witnesses. They said they had recovered electronic devices, including a GoPro camera and a flight data recorder, which may provide data on the helicopter’s movements and speed, as well as ambient sound.

The safety board’s investigators interviewed the chief pilot of Liberty Helicopters, the large sightseeing and charter company based in New Jersey that owns and operates the Airbus AS350 B2 that crashed. They also talked to several witnesses and rescuers, but have not yet spoken with Vance, who they said was injured in the crash.

The group was on an excursion that left from Kearny, New Jersey, booked by FlyNYON, a company that advertises doors-off helicopter rides to thrill-seekers and photographers. Despite the deployment of floats intended to keep the craft from sinking, the helicopter quickly rolled over after it landed in the river, trapping the passengers upside down in 40-degree water. The victims were Trevor Cadigan and Brian McDaniel, both 26, high school friends from Dallas; Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29, of Corrientes, Argentina; and Daniel Thompson, 34, and Tristan Hill, 29, who a law enforcement official said were both employees of the helicopter company that operated the flight.

After the crash, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat, called on the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend the license of Liberty Helicopters.

The FAA, which certifies aircraft and their operators, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was monitoring the safety board’s investigation and would take “appropriate action based on what we learn.” It said it was preparing to communicate with operators of aerial photography flights and their customers about the use of harnesses, but it did not specify if it would ban them or require more preflight instruction about how to unhook them in an emergency.

“We are giving urgent attention to the use of harnesses specifically for aerial photography flights,” the statement read.

In its update on Tuesday evening, the safety board made no mention of the elaborate harnesses that trapped the passengers underwater and made it difficult for divers to extricate them. Bella Dinh-Zarr, a member of the safety board in New York for the investigation, said on Monday that it was legal for a helicopter to fly with its doors open, but she did not discuss the use of harnesses.