FAA grounds company whose helicopter crashed into Hudson after employee who voluntarily suspended flights is fired

(CNN) — The helicopter tour company whose sightseeing chopper plunged into the Hudson River on Thursday must stop operations immediately, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

The suspension of the air carrier certificate comes after an employee at the company who voluntarily agreed to stop flights was fired, according to a letter from the Chief Counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Sunday, the Director of Operations for New York Helicopter, Jason Costello, agreed in a phone call and email to cease flights until the investigation was complete, the letter states.

But minutes later, it says, the company’s CEO Michael Roth sent an email to the FAA saying Costello didn’t have authority to do that and he was “no longer an employee of NY Helicopter.”

“The immediate firing of the Director of Operations raises serious safety concerns because it appears Mr. Roth retaliated against Mr. Costello for making the safety decision to cease operations during the investigations,” the FAA said in the letter.

US Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York Sunday urged federal authorities to revoke the company’s operating certificate following the crash, which killed everyone on board, including three children.

“We know there is one thing for sure about New York City’s helicopter tour companies: they have a deadly track record … and it is usually the companies, not the pilots, that are openly manipulating (FAA) rules, cutting corners and could well be putting profits over people,” Schumer said.

“One of the things we can do to honor those lives and try and save others is to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

New York Helicopter Tours was previously involved in two safety incidents investigated by federal aviation authorities. Michael Roth, the company’s CEO, has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment regarding Schumer’s calls for their flights to be suspended.

On Monday, the NTSB said the helicopter’s main rotor system, including the transmission, the roof beam and the tail rotor system were recovered.

“The evidence will be taken to a secure location for further examination,” the NTSB said. “Recovery efforts are now finished.”

The helicopter was carrying six people, including Agustín Escobar, 49; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal; and their three children – two sons, ages 4 and 11, and a daughter who was to turn 9 on Friday.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said the family was visiting from Spain, and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said in a social media post the family was in New York to celebrate Camprubí’s 40th birthday. The helicopter crashed off the New Jersey shoreline of the Hudson.

The pilot, a former Navy SEAL, was identified as 36-year-old Seankese Johnson, according to city officials. He was certified to fly commercial helicopters since August 2023, according to FAA records, and the NTSB noted he had completed 788 hours in the air.

Between 1977 and 2019, helicopter accidents in New York City killed at least 32 people, according to The Associated Press. A 2018 crash that killed five people in a “doors-off” aerial tour after the passengers drowned, unable to free themselves from their safety harnesses after the helicopter plunged into the water, prompted tighter regulations on such flights from the FAA.

Along with pausing the helicopter flights, Schumer pushed for the FAA to increase ramp inspections – surprise inspections that ensure the companies and helicopters are complying with safety regulations – at other helicopter tour companies in the city.

New York City Councilwoman Amanda Farías, chair of the council’s Committee on Economic Development, on Friday called “for a serious reevaluation of current policies” and urged the city “to consider an immediate moratorium on non-essential helicopter flights from city-owned heliports while investigations are ongoing.”

The Eastern Region Helicopter Council, a trade group that represents helicopter operators, says a ban would not be the right solution.

“The helicopter community is in shock and mourning after the tragic and horrific events,” chairman Jeff Smith said in an earlier statement. “Unfortunately, some well-meaning but misguided leaders are using this tragedy to exploit and push their decades-old agenda to ban all helicopters. Before taking legislative action, we need to learn more from the investigation.”

The investigation is ongoing

In 2013, one of the company’s pilots flying a helicopter carrying four passengers heard a “bang” followed by the “Engine Out warning horn.” Forced to land on the water near Manhattan, the pilot inflated the helicopter’s floats and got the passengers to safety on a boat.

In 2015, a pilot for the New York Helicopter Charter company was forced to land in New Jersey after hovering 20 feet in the air for a short time. An initial inspection showed there “may have been corrosion removed” from sections of the helicopter and that some of the helicopter’s component parts may have been deformed to an extent to be “considered unairworthy,” according to an FAA inspector at the time. The same helicopter was previously involved in a crash in Chile in 2010.

“The only thing I can tell you is that we are devastated,” Roth previously told CNN about Thursday’s deadly accident. “I’m a father, a grandfather.”

When asked about the maintenance of the helicopter that crashed Thursday, Roth said at the time, “That’s something my director of maintenance handles.” The director of maintenance declined to comment.

Maintenance records are not publicly accessible, and the NTSB restricts what companies can disclose during an ongoing investigation.

Both the FAA and the NTSB are investigating the crash. The NTSB has dispatched a “go-team” to the site to examine the wreckage and review maintenance records, it said on social media, and is asking the public to submit any additional video or photos they may have.

The helicopter was not equipped with any flight data recorders, including video or camera recorders, and none of its avionics onboard recorded information that could be used for the investigation, the NTSB said Saturday. The helicopter’s last major inspection was on March 1, and it had completed seven tour flights before the accident, according to the NTSB.

CNN’s Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores, Hanna Park, John Miller, Taylor Romine, Aaron Cooper, Jeff Winter and Bob Ortega contributed to this report.

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