The accident of a helicopter in a skyscraper in Manhattan (New York) after a forced landing on Monday, in which only the pilot died, has left unknowns that now investigate the authorities and reopen the debate on the need to allow these trips on a city so populated.
“I think non-essential flights should be vetoed in New York, it’s very densely populated, it’s too dangerous, there’s no safe place to land, if there’s a problem, it’s not safe to land in the water, on the street or in the roofs, “said New York congresswoman Caroline Maloney.
The debate is not new, the representative of the affected district said at a press conference last night: others “have been asking for years” that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibits helicopters from flying over the Big Apple, widening the veto of 1977 to landing on their roofs.
In Manhattan it is forbidden to install heliports on the roofs of the buildings after the May 16 of that year a device crashed into a building and caused the death of five people, so these air vehicles resort to facilities on the banks of the East River and the Hudson River, which bathe the city.
The FAA assured that the flight of the private aircraft, a model Augusta A109E, was not managed by its air traffic controllers and also added that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will be in charge of investigating what happened , started by the cause of the event.
The pilot, identified as Tim McCormack and described in local media as a professional with 15 years of experience, took off in a day of heavy rain from the East River heliport, at 34th Street, and crashed eleven minutes later on the roof of a 54-story skyscraper at 787 Seventh Avenue.
“Why was I flying with such a bad time?” Asked the congresswoman, who acknowledged that the consequences “could have been much worse” due to the weather conditions and the central location, near Times Square, in a restricted area. on the flight to be located near the Trump Tower, between skyscrapers.
The policy lamented other helicopter accidents in the city, such as the one in March last year, in which the five passengers drowned in the East River and the pilot escaped, and after which he again asked to be banned from flying over the city in these devices.
Maloney said that the veto of “non-essential” flights will be debated by the legislature on Tuesday, a bill that has been “18 years” blocked and now may progress, although “there is still a process, we must review the reports and what happened “, as well as defining what reasons would be” essential “. (EFEUSA) .-
