2018 New York City helicopter crash

2018 New York City helicopter crash

N350LH being recovered from the East River on March 12, 2018
Accident (or maybe just bad luck?)
Date	March 11, 2018 (2018-03-11)
Summary	Crashed into river following loss of engine power and poor decision making
Site	East River, New York City, United States (aka "Splash City")
Aircraft
N350LH, the helicopter involved, photographed in July 2014 (before it decided to go swimming)
Aircraft type	Eurocopter AS350B2 Écureuil (a fancy French squirrel with wings)
Operator	Liberty Helicopters (because freedom is expensive)
Registration	N350LH
Flight origin	Helo Kearny Heliport, New Jersey, United States (a place where helicopters feel at home)
Destination	Helo Kearny Heliport, New Jersey, United States (because sometimes you just want a round trip... into the water)
Occupants	6 (including one very unlucky pilot)
Passengers	5
Crew	1
Fatalities	5 (RIP, very bad day)
Injuries	1 (the lucky survivor)
Survivors	1 (plot twist!)

On March 11, 2018, a sightseeing helicopter bravely decided to take an unscheduled swim in the East River off the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The adventure sadly resulted in five fatalities. Two passengers checked out early (at the scene), while three more passed away at the hospital (the party was over). The pilot, defying the odds and physics, escaped the wet mess. The flight was run by Liberty Helicopters for FlyNyon, which apparently believes helicopters should sometimes do the backstroke.

Aircraft

The star of this aquatic drama was a Eurocopter AS350B2 Écureuil, a French helicopter that apparently missed its calling as a submarine. It had a clean record prior to this aquatic debut. Liberty Helicopters had a history of crash landings, with two other incidents in the past 11 years — persistence is key!

Passengers enjoyed the thrill of open-door flying with special harnesses that were supposed to keep them inside but sometimes felt more like medieval torture devices. These supplemental harnesses, courtesy of FlyNYON, were supposed to prevent passengers from falling out while letting them feel the wind in their hair and risk their lives simultaneously.

The helicopter complied with a complex web of FAA regulations (because chaos needs rules), including Parts 91, 119, and 136, depending on how you squint at the paperwork.

Accident

The flight took off from Helo Kearny Heliport around 7:00 PM. The pilot, a man who clearly enjoys multitasking, had been flying all day and couldn't quite remember how many flights he had done. The passengers were securely strapped in (or mostly), with life vests and cutting tools for emergency escape (because who doesn't want a knife handy during a helicopter ride?).

The scenic route included iconic NYC landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and Central Park. The helicopter climbed to about 2,000 feet, but then things went downhill—literally. One passenger decided to unbuckle and dangle legs outside for the perfect photo (because risking death is the new tourist thing). Seconds later, engine noises faltered, alarms screamed, and the helicopter started an involuntary descent near Roosevelt Island.

Witnesses reported the helicopter spinning like a confused ballerina before plunging into the river. The pilot, faced with imminent aquatic immersion, chose to ditch in the East River rather than Central Park — probably the better call. A mayday was sent at 7:06 PM, but by then the helicopter was already doing its best impression of a submarine.

Investigation

NTSB investigators poke around the soggy remains of N350LH on March 13, 2018

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately launched their detective hats and magnifying glasses to figure out why a helicopter decided to take an unplanned dip.

Supplemental harness

Almost as soon as the news broke, former passengers spilled the tea on the “complicated system of straps, carabiners, and an emergency blade for cutting [the proprietary eight-point Safety Harness System] off in case of trouble,” combined with lackluster training, blaming these for turning a fun flight into a “death grip” nightmare. Pilots had apparently begged for better-fitting harnesses and sharper tools to help guests cut themselves loose, but FlyNYON kept sending yellow nylon straps originally meant for construction workers hanging from scaffolding, not tourists dangling off helicopters. The pilots preferred a fancy blue FAA-approved harness (which also probably came with a cape) but FlyNYON stuck to the cheaper yellow option patched up with “NYON blue safety tape” (read: masking tape).

The infamous yellow nylon harness; comes with stylish chest strap cutter, which doubles as a very ineffective escape tool.

Passengers were handed a hook-shaped cutter supposedly designed to slice through the tethers in an emergency. Unfortunately, testing revealed it was about as effective as trying to cut steel cables with a butter knife. The tethers were made of ultra-tough Dyneema, a material so strong it might as well have been "please don’t escape" woven into it. A pilot even found a better knife and tether combo, but the older, nearly escape-proof system was still in use the day disaster struck. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt summed it up: "The contraption that FlyNYON rigged up turned a perfectly good helicopter into a death trap."

Skid floats

The Airbus AS350 B2 isn’t really meant to do the doggy paddle, but it was equipped with emergency flotation devices from Dart Aerospace — basically inflatable swim rings for helicopters. The system was designed to inflate symmetrically to keep the chopper bobbing upright, but post-crash inspection showed the right float had a serious case of deflation (0 psi), while the left float was pumped up like a champion (about 4000 psi). The NTSB’s investigation found that although the activation mechanism was smooth, the right float failed to fully deploy, leaving the helicopter with a lopsided life vest.

FlyNYON and Liberty

FlyNYON is the hip, doors-off spinoff of NY On Air (NYONair), founded by Patrick Day Jr. in 2012 to make aerial photography tours more affordable and Instagrammable. Their marketing genius involved encouraging tourists to take #ShoeSelfies—because nothing says “professional photographer” like your sneakers in the shot. Patrick Day Jr. and his dad ran both FlyNYON and Liberty Helicopters, so it was basically a family business of helicopter daredevils.

A safety video promised passengers they could cut themselves free from their harnesses in a snap — the video showed one passenger effortlessly snipping the tether with a single stroke. Reality was different: pilots sometimes took over 30 seconds to slice through those tethers with the available tools, which is a lifetime in an emergency.

NYONair’s own investigation led to recommendations for the FAA and Dart Aerospace, including redesigning safety systems to prevent accidental fuel shutoffs and ensuring flotation devices work properly.

Aftermath

The family of one victim sued FlyNYON and Liberty Helicopters just days later, claiming it was basically impossible for passengers to escape the death trap harnesses. Airbus got dragged into the lawsuit too. In 2024, a jury handed out a whopping $116 million verdict, splitting blame mostly between FlyNYON (42%), Liberty Helicopters (38%), and Dart Aerospace (20%).

The NTSB confirmed long-standing safety concerns with the fuel shutoff lever design, which can be accidentally triggered, leading to serious trouble. Airbus had a newer design ready but the FAA didn’t make them retrofit existing helicopters.

In March 2018, the NTSB issued a serious warning demanding that the FAA ban open-door passenger flights using harness systems that can't be quickly and easily released without knives. The FAA followed up quickly, imposing a one-year ban on "doors-off" flights with non-approved supplemental restraint systems, which has been renewed since.

Finally, in December 2019, the NTSB published its full report concluding the pilot's ditching was skillful and survivable, but the supplemental harnesses trapped the passengers underwater, causing them to drown. The accidental activation of the fuel shutoff lever by one of these harnesses was identified as the root cause.

See also

• 2009 Hudson River mid-air collision
• 2025 Hudson River helicopter crash