A day after a vacationer helicopter crash within the Hudson River killed six folks together with a Spanish CEO, his spouse and three youngsters, many native electeds renewed their calls to outlaw non-emergency chopper visitors above New York Metropolis — however Mayor Adams, whose help could be key to attaining any such prohibition, argued Friday there’s no want for an outright ban.
“They’re putting us in in danger,” he continued. “If that crash yesterday had hit a school, a park or a workplace, this tragedy could have been far worse.”
New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal speaks throughout a press convention in Foley Sq., Manhattan in 2024. (Shawn Inglima for New York Each day Information)
Metropolis Councilman Chris Marte, a Democrat whose district contains the Wall St. heliport from which Thursday’s ill-fated flight took off, agreed.
“It was wholly preventable,” Marte stated of the tragic crash. “This is the second such incident in six years involving tourist helicopters,” he stated, referencing a 2019 Midtown crash that took the lifetime of pilot Tim McCormack.
However the mayor was reticent Friday, saying security may very well be achieved with out an outright ban on non-essential helicopter journey.
“I remember in 1977 when the helicopter crashed into the Pan Am Building, we made adjustments and modifications,” Adams stated on NY1 Friday morning, referencing the ugly crash 50 years in the past wherein a runaway rotor fell from the rooftop of what’s now the Met Life constructing, killing 5.
“You can always adjust and modify based on these circumstances,” the mayor added.
“There were 17 crashes over approximately 40 years,” the mayor continued. “Those are numbers that you have to look at when you make these adjustments, and, you know, we don’t ban vehicles on our roads.”
Mayor Adams is pictured on the shoreline of the Hudson River at Pier 40 in Manhattan after a vacationer helicopter went down on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Each day Information)
In an look on 1010WINS radio, Adams stated the town had hundreds of vacationer flights a yr.
“People want to see the city from the sky,” he stated.
“Use of helicopters in this city is more than just tourism, it’s also part of the business movements, CEOs and executives,” he added.
Any ban on non-essential helicopter journey over Manhattan must come from the Federal Aviation Administration, which governs the nation’s airspace.
A spokeswoman on the U.S. Division of Transportation — which oversees the FAA — confirmed that the company had put short-term flight restrictions across the crash web site, however there aren’t any such restrictions over Manhattan.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Each day Information
The mangled wreckage of a helicopter is lifted from the Hudson River in Jersey Metropolis on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Each day Information)
Whereas the feds rule the sky, the town can regulate the place helicopters are permitted to land — a transfer made by metropolis officers who outlawed rooftop landings following the 1977 Pan Am crash.
Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who has referred to as for banning non-emergency helicopter visitors within the metropolis since she was first elected to the Council in 2001, stated she hopes to increase these limitations with a invoice pending that will ban vacationer flights from any city-owned heliports.
“The federal legislation isn’t going anywhere and the City Council bill isn’t moving,” she stated. “I frankly don’t know what else to do — it’s dangerous and it’s noisy,” she stated.
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Agustin Escobar, his spouse, Merce Camprubi Montal, with two of their three youngsters are pictured in an undated picture. The household was killed in a helicopter crash on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Fb)
Brewer additionally voiced outrage that the mayor would defer to “business leaders.”
“I couldn’t believe that,” she stated. “You have to think about your constituents, and your constituents hate the noise. Why don’t you think about them first? It is shocking.”
Initially Printed: April 11, 2025 at 2:02 PM EDT
