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Pilot of crashed New York helicopter was reportedly low on fuel and headed back to helipad (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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Search resumes for six killed aboard plane, the unnamed pilot and a Spanish family with children age 11, five and four

The pilot of a sightseeing helicopter that crashed into New York’s Hudson River on Thursday killing all six people aboard reportedly sent a radio message moments earlier saying he was low on fuel and was heading back to the helipad, its operators said on Friday.

Michael Roth, the chief executive of New York Helicopter Tours, described how the pilot never made it back to the downtown Manhattan heliport it took off from about 16 minutes previously on its sixth flight of the day, the Telegraph reported.

“He called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,” Roth told the UK outlet.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 42 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It sounds like the low fuel situation wasn't directly related to the crash.

Videos posted on social media captured large chunks of the helicopter, including rotor blades spinning independently of the fuselage, falling from the sky and splashing into the river on Thursday afternoon, not long after the tourist flight had taken off from a popular heliport at the tip of Manhattan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut

Jesus nut is a slang term for the main rotor retaining nut[1] or mast nut, which holds the main rotor to the mast of some helicopters. The related slang term Jesus pin refers to the lock pin used to secure the retaining nut. More generally, Jesus nut (or Jesus pin) is used to refer to any component that is a single point of failure and whose breakdown would result in catastrophic consequences, the suggestion being that in such case the only thing left to do would be to pray to Jesus, or that the component's importance could be likened to the importance of Jesus to Christianity.

In April 2025, 6 people (a family of 5 plus the pilot) were killed in New York when the Bell 206 helicopter they were travelling in suffered a suspected mid-flight detachment of its main rotor blade. Early speculation pinned the blame on an incorrectly installed or serviced Jesus nut.[7]

If it had been just fuel exhaustion, it'd still have been possible to bring the helicopter down via autorotation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation

The most common use of autorotation in helicopters is to safely land the aircraft in the event of an engine failure or tail-rotor failure. It is a common emergency procedure taught to helicopter pilots as part of their training.

In normal powered helicopter flight, air is drawn into the main rotor system from above and forced downward, but during autorotation, air moves into the rotor system from below as the helicopter descends. Autorotation is permitted mechanically because of both a freewheeling unit, which allows the main rotor to continue turning even if the engine is not running, as well as aerodynamic forces of relative wind maintaining rotor speed. It is the means by which a helicopter can land safely in the event of complete engine failure or other mechanical issue which disconnects the engine from the rotor system. Consequently, all single-engine helicopters must demonstrate this capability to obtain a type certificate.

[–] TheRealKuni@midwest.social 7 points 10 months ago

I don’t think this was a Jesus Nut situation. Blancolirio’s video shows a frame where the transmission is still clearly connected to the main rotor, which says there was a failure in the transmission. If the Jesus Nut failed or there was a mast bump, the transmission would’ve stayed attached to the helicopter (as I understand it).

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Autorotation requires either height or airspeed. There's an envelope where it's possible, but if you don't have one of those, it's not going to work.