New York helicopter crash was ‘entirely predictable’, say campaigners

Calls to end non-essential traffic at city’s heliports after deaths of Spanish family of five add to at least 38 since 1977

The crash of a tourist helicopter on New York’s Hudson River on Thursday that killed a pilot and a Spanish family of five was “entirely predictable”, according to advocates who are calling for the closure of the region’s three heliports to non-essential traffic.

“A lot of these helicopters are 30 or even 40 years old, and this one was 21 years old, which is still pretty old,” said Andrew Rosenthal, chair of the Stop the Chop group that has campaigned for an end to helicopter sightseeing trips over New York City and the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.