NYC helicopter that plunged into Hudson River had mechanical issue months before fatal wreck

The New York City helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River had a mechanical issue months before it broke apart midair and killed all six onboard, including a family of tourists visiting from Spain, according to records.

The ill-fated Bell206L-4 LongRanger IV aircraft, owned and operated by New York Helicopter, experienced a mechanical issue with its transmission assembly last September, according to Federal Aviation Administration data.

Records show the doomed chopper was built in 2004 and had already logged 12,728 hours of flight time when it was forced into repair.

An investigation is underway to determine what caused the aircraft to drop out of the sky and plunge into the river. The probe will comb through the pilot’s experience, the still-incomplete wreckage, and the Big Apple company that runs the sightseeing tours.

Investigators will also review the maintenance work that was done on the doomed aircraft, including the completion of two recent safety airworthiness directives the FAA issued on Bell 206L model helicopters.

The federal agency issued the first directive in December 2022 and called for the inspection and possible replacement of the models’ main rotor blades due to “delamination” — an issue with the internal layers of the blade separating due to material fatigue, damage or other defects. 

The problem, if not fixed, could potentially cause the rotor blade to fail.

A second directive, issued in May 2023, required the testing and possible replacement of tail rotor shafts on eight models, including the one involved in Thursday’s deadly wreck, according to the FAA, which issued the alert after a chopper lost a tail-rotor drive due to a joint failure. 

The rotors on the doomed aircraft are still missing, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Friday. NYPD divers are still on the hunt for several mangled pieces of the craft.

Chilling footage captured the aircraft crumbling midair before it plunged into the river, with at least one rotor still spinning as other parts of the helicopter splashed down in various directions.

The helicopter took off from Manhattan’s Downtown Skyport at roughly 1:50 p.m., with Siemens executive Agustin Escober, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three young children — Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4 — in tow.

The family, who hailed from Barcelona, Spain, were flown by Sean Johnson, 36, a Navy SEAL veteran who recently moved to the Big Apple for his still-young aviation career. 

The helicopter crashed about 25 minutes into its air tour, Homendy said. 

But this isn’t the first time the tour company has seen one of its aircraft in the same murky waters.  

A Bell 206 chopper carrying four Swedish tourists crashed landed in the Hudson when the aircraft lost power in June 2013 – with the pilot and four family members miraculously surviving.

New York Helicopter CEO Michael Roth told the Wall Street Journal at the time that the chopper underwent daily routine inspections but had “no clue why” the aircraft malfunctioned mid-flight.

Now, 12 years later, Roth again has “no clue” what happened. 

“I’m absolutely devastated,” Roth told The Post after the deadly crash.

“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter. And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business,” he continued.

“The only thing I could guess — I got no clue — is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know. This is horrific. But you gotta remember something, these are machines and they break.”

The helicopter was issued an airworthiness certificate in 2016 that was valid through 2029, records show.

With Post wires