The tour company whose helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York City, killing a family of five and the pilot, has a history of safety problems.
New York Helicopter was flying the family on a sightseeing trip over the city on Thursday when the aircraft suddenlyfell from the sky.
Spanish tourists Agustin Escober, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three young children Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4, were all killed.
The pilot, Navy SEAL veteran Sean Johnson, 36, also died in the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration suspended the company's operation and will investigate the operator's license and safety record.
New York Helicopter has been operating for decades, but has struggled with safety issues and financial problems.
There was a close call in 2013, when a helicopter suddenly lost power in midair and the pilot maneuvered it to a safe landing on pontoons in the Hudson.
Over the past eight years, the company has been through a bankruptcy. It also faces ongoing lawsuits over alleged debts.
Agustin Escober, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three young children - Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4 -were on vacation to celebrate the birthday of one of their daughters, who would have turned nine on Saturday
The doomed helicopter was being flown by 36-year-old Sean Johnson (pictured) - a Navy SEAL veteran - when in suddenly split apart in the sky
New York Helicopterwas sued for over $1.4 million in January by a company that claimed it wasn't being paid for a leased chopper.
A cash-advance lender sued in February, saying the helicopter firm had blocked repayments on a weeks-old loan and owed over $83,000. New York Helicopter hasn't yet filed a response in either case.
The business said it was profoundly saddened by the crash and referred any media inquiries to investigators.
'The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew has always been the cornerstone of our operations,' it added.
Michael Roth founded it in the 1990s and still runs the firm, which is also known asNew York Helicopter Charter Inc, and New York Helicopter Tours LLC.
One of few firms with a license allowing it to fly close to major New York City landmarks, it also offers shuttles to airports and charter flights for executives and others.
The airspace around Manhattan is busy, tricky and sometimes deadly. More than three dozen people have perished in tours and other helicopter crashes in NYC in the last half-century.
Just weeks ago, a $90 million settlement ended a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by relatives of one of five passengers killed in a 2018 sightseeing-helicopter crash operated by a different company.
Mayor Eric Adams noted in TV interviews on Friday that thousands of flights a year operate safely from the lower Manhattan heliport where Thursday's tour took off.
Asked whether he had any specific concerns about New York Helicopter, he said only that investigators were looking into what happened. He won't stop flights over the city operated by other companies.
New York Helicopter's website claimed an 'industry-leading safety record,' but its history is far from spotless.
The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the 2013 power failure partly to an 'improper maintenance decision' about an oil pressure issue.
A family of four tourists from Swedenwere taking a sightseeing tour in a Bell 206 helicopter that had also taken off near Wall Street.
The pilot was forced to land in the water and deploy inflatable pontoons to keep the aircraft upright.
All four passengers were taken to hospital at the time, but there were no serious injuries.
There was a close call in 2013, when a helicopter suddenly lost power in midair and the pilot maneuvered it to a safe landing on pontoons in the Hudson
All four passengers were taken to hospital at the time, but there were no serious injuries
Two years later, a New York Helicopter craft went into a spin while hovering about 20ft off a helipad, landing hard but safely with just the pilot aboard.
The investigation determined the same helicopter - a Bell 206 model leased from Meridian Helicopters - had been involved in a hard landing in Chile in 2010.
The helicopter was found to have a drive shaft of the aircraft that the NTSB described 'unairworthy' that was hidden in a 'deliberate concealment and reuse'.
The NTSB blamed an unknown person who had painted over a bad part, which was marked as faulty, so no one would know.
New York Helicopter had recently leased the aircraft fromMeridian Helicopters, a Louisiana company that had just bought it and told investigators it arrived with a fresh coat of paint.
Meridian also owned theBell206L-4 LongRanger IV aircraft that crashed into the Hudson on Thursday.
Michael Roth founded it in the 1990s and still runs the firm, which is also known as New York Helicopter Charter Inc, and New York Helicopter Tours LLC
Horrified onlookers in New York and New Jersey watched as the aircraft, operated by local tour company New York Helicopter Charters, split apart in the sky and spiraled into the river
New York Helicopter hit financial trouble after New York City halved tour helicopter traffic in 2017, according to filings in the company's 2019 bankruptcy case.
As flights were cut down but Manhattan landing fees rose, the company saw revenue fall from $4.5 million in 2017 to $3.9 million in 2018, according to its bankruptcy papers. New York Helicopter said it slashed its staff from 30 employees to 13.
By 2019, it listed $6 million in assets and $1.6 million in liabilities, including hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for landing fees and repair bills.
The business emerged from bankruptcy in 2022 but apparently continued to face financial headwinds.
Last June, the company filed a lawsuit over what it called an 'unconscionable' loan it got in 2018 from another cash-advance lender.
The helicopter company dropped the case this month. It is unclear from court records whether there was any financial or other settlement, and a lawyer who represented the company declined to comment.
