Brian Murray
A Bell 206 tourist helicopter crashes into the Hudson river killing the CEO of Siemens. Why would a helicopter crash so suddenly? What can cause a helicopter to just fall from the sky? NO AI was used in the making of this video.
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22 yrs Army helicopters, OH-58, TH-67 and later TH-57 experience. Taught the Maintenance Test Pilot course for Bell AH-1F Cobra. Mast bumping usually causes separation of the Main Rotor (M/R) hub from the mast. I does not usually pull the entire transmission out. The only thing that does that is excessive mast movement knocking the "candlestick" against it's stops under the XMSN. Watching the initial portion of the video, the aircraft appears to be flying level and cruising. I see no immediate maneuvers or disturbances until the severe yaw event that initiates the tail boom separation. My experiences point to 2 possible causes. The Tail Rotor (T/R) drive shaft hangar bearings on the 206 models (civilian versions of the 56, 57, and 58) are notoriously picky about accepting lubrication. They have been known to discolor and seize with little to no warning. Locking up the T/R drive shaft at the tail boom attach point bearing can cause separation, and the immediate torque due to loss of yaw control/tailboom could cause the whole upper pylon to become dislodged. The other option that comes to mind is pitch control link failure. I had a Cobra do that. When a P/C link fails, the M/R blades, or at least one, are no longer controlled and can easily flail themselves into the tailboom. That applies torque to the XMSN, potentially ripping it out. The fact the blades were still attached to the XMSN is what kept them rotating, like a toy set of blades on a stick. So, while I don't disagree that mast bumping could be a cause, the evidence I see doesn't lend itself to that.
I am now a retired A&P mechanic, I once as a necessity took a job at a private touring company, I lasted all two weeks. They take short cuts, they push part hours way past their service limits. For those of you who may not know aviation parts are measured by flight hours, not mileage like a car. I will never take a tourist flight of any type, how do the pilots do it I'l never know. One of the many reasons I resigned was when they hired an unlicensed guy who was previously working at an auto parts store, and wanted me to sign off on his "work". This accident I assure you was no accident, greed played a part in it.
Certified Airframe & Powerplant mechanic with 14 years/5 different platforms of Helos under my belt. I saw this video on a social media platform. As soon as I saw the fuselage falling, I instantly saw no tailboom attached. My first thought was inflight collision, but quickly realized there's no evidence of that. Second thought was structural failure of some sort. All of the Bell Helicopters I've worked on all been Semi-artuculate rotor heads. I've never once heard of a mast bumping incident resulting in an incident. Doesn't mean it's not possible though. I want to present another possibility from a mechanic point of view. On a larger Bell helicopter, the tailboom had 4 mount bolts that had to get replaced for - Life Limited - exceedance. We would do this during a phase or reset after specific flight hour intervals. If this particular model has a mounting bolt inspection or torque check an improperly installed mounting bolts would be catastrophic event in flight. I personally always thought the design was to simplistic and had no fail-safe design Incase of improper install or fatugue failure. In aviation helicopters have what we call the "Jesus nut". If the torque fails in-flight your praying to Jesus before meeting him. The tailboom bolts are just as important as it connects and supports everything in the tail rotor system. Pray for the innocent children. To many people take aviation safety for granted and don't understand how much effort goes into making airplanes and helicopters fly safe everyday in this country. We call it attention to detail. One small detail can cause a major incident and loss of life in aviation. Pilots have to be perfect, mechanics and ground crew have to be perfect. Mistakes aren't allowed in our industry. Perhaps someone made a mistake, or just structural fatigue. Only inspectors will determine the outcome. I know I sure would like to read the aircraft logbook and see who performed what maintenance. Then interview those mechs.
1. If you watch the video, and zoom in, you can clearly see the tail boom break off and the helicopter spin a couple times BEFORE the main rotor separates. 2. If it were mast bumping, the rotor head would've snapped off at the top. The entire main rotor gearbox wouldn't have ripped off the helicopter. 3. The Bell 206, even though it's a 2 bladed teetering rotor, is not really prone to mast bumping. It's a very rare occurrence in them. 3. The tail attach brackets are a known issue in Bell helicopters. There's an Airworthiness directive on them. They crack frequently.
As a recently retired Navy flight test engineer I’ve been involved in more than a few accident investigations over my career. I truly appreciate you not wildly conjecturing about the cause of the mishap. You provided a possibility and explained it wonderfully. Anything more is irresponsible but regularly occurs today so creators can get that quick click and like. Thanks!
I used to work as an A&P at a Bell Service center. A medivac 222 came in for a transmission mounting plate refit. This was a large 1 piece, machined plate of metal that connects the transmission to the helicopter body and it had a SEVERE metal fatigue crack traveling across the entire plate. It looked as if it wouldn't have held for another flight and was only noticed by a mechanic performing a daily inspection! This obviously is not a 222, but seeing this instantly reminded me of that repair and how if that crack wasn't noticed then, it could've been just as tragic and something similar may have happened on this airframe.
My dad booked us on a helicopter ride around the Queen Mary docked in Long Beach CA in the 1970s. It was super thrilling, and the pilots were known for hot-doggin' around and making the ride memorable. A week or so after our adventure, the same copter crashed and it killed all four people on board. Soon after, they stopped doing helicopter tours at the Queen Mary. My prayers go out to the families of these victims.
My Dad was a Navy trained pilot who went into the CIA Civil Air Transport then Air America during the Vietnam War. One of those crazy Air America pilots who could fly anything from Pilatus Porters to 727's and even had to bring in a DC-3 with part of a wing shot off during the war (his favorite plane!) He started his career on helicopters and after having to autorotate twice to land, he walked away forever from helicopter duty and went to fixed wing. He said he never trusted helicopters after that and refused to put his life in danger.
