NTSB investigates New York helicopter crash that kills five passengers by drowning

NEW YORK. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials in Washington are investigating the fatal crash of a helicopter operated by Liberty Helicopters for sightseeing tours that crashed in the East River in New York City on 11 March 2018. The pilot escaped but all five paying passengers perished; officials reports indicate the helicopter was upside-down in the water and the cause of all three deaths is drowning.

The NTSB’s Go Team has formed an operations group, airworthiness group, powerplants group, and a survival factors group to conduct the NTSB’s investigation of the crash.

Emily Gibson, a survival factors investigator with the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, is the chair of the survival factors group and helping to inspect the condition of cockpit and cabin systems, as well to document the crash of the Liberty Helicopters’ helicopter.

A weather group and air traffic control group were also formed using NTSB investigators in Washington.

NTSB photos by Chris O’Neil.