NEW YORK — The National Transportation Safety Board has released the preliminary report on the crash of a helicopter earlier in the month.

Five people died after the helicopter they were passengers on went down March 11 in New York’s East River.

Three of the passengers had been taken to hospital with critical injuries after surviving the crash. Two others were killed in the crash.

A sixth person, the pilot, was able to free himself and was rescued.

Officials said, “The preliminary report summarizes the preflight activities, passenger briefing and the sequence of events leading up to the accident as described by the pilot during a post-accident interview.”

The preliminary report is available online here. </s> Federal investigators on Saturday (May 4) began searching for what caused a Boeing jetliner with 143 people on board to slide off a runway into a shallow river while landing at a Jacksonville, Florida, military base during a thunderstorm, injuring 22 people.

The Boeing 737-800 chartered by the U.S. military was arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members when it slid into the St. Johns River at the end of the 9,000-foot runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Friday night, authorities said.

Officials raised the count of people injured to 22, from 21, after a three-month-old child was admitted to a local hospital for observation, Captain Michael Connor, commanding officer at the Jacksonville station, told a news conference.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have recovered an undamaged flight data recorder and it has been sent to Washington for analysis, NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at the news conference.

"We expect to get a very full report on that shortly," he said.

Investigators said they are hoping to interview the crew on Sunday.

The cockpit voice recorder is in the tail of the plane and submerged underwater. Investigators will not be able to recover it until the aircraft is lifted out of the water, Landsberg said.

"We are going to be very careful in preserving the perishable evidence," he said.

Officials were determining the best way to remove the plane from the water, NTSB investigator in charge John Lovell said.

"There are some ideas being floated in terms of putting some sort of cushioning below it ... and moving it on those cushions," he said.

The U.S. Coast Guard placed floating booms around the jetliner to contain leaking jet fuel in the water, Landsberg said.

The plane, chartered from Miami Air International, was attempting to land at about 9:40 p.m. local time amid thunder and lightning when it slid off the runway and came to rest in the shallow water of the river, authorities and passengers said.

Landsberg said investigators will look closely at whether the weather played a role in the incident.

"It is a miracle. We could be talking about a different story," Connor said early on Saturday.

Active duty military members, civilian government employees and their dependents were on the jetliner, Connor told CNN.

The military base is on the western bank of the St. Johns River about 8 miles (12.87 km) south of central Jacksonville, about 350 miles (563.27 km) north of Miami.

Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of the Boeing 737-800, different from the 737 MAX 8 aircraft that has been grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane.

Representatives of the airline did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Boeing Co said that the company was aware of the incident and gathering information.

The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly "rotator" round-trip service between the U.S. mainland and Guantanamo Bay, said Bill Dougherty, a spokesman for the Jacksonville base. </s> iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Two people were killed when a private helicopter crashed into the East River Sunday evening, authorities said.

The red Eurocopter AS350 helicopter was carrying six passengers when it went down, police sources said. One of the passengers was seriously injured after being pulled from the water, sources said.

A bystander captured the helicopter’s descent into the water on video. The footage shows the final seconds as the chopper’s propellers strike the glassy river’s surface, its engine sputtering.

The helicopter hit the cold water at East 96th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood about 7 p.m., local and federal authorities later confirmed.

The pilot who was experiencing engine failure, sources said.

The Federal Aviation Administration tweeted that it was investigating the crash and added that the helicopter is “reportedly inverted in the water.” It added that the National Transportation Safety Board would lead the investigation.

New York City’s NYPD and FDNY confirmed that there were sending emergency personnel into the area near East 90th Street in Manhattan. </s> The National Transportation Safety Board issued its preliminary report Monday in the deadly East River helicopter crash.Five people died on March 11, when the AS-350 operated by Liberty Helicopter tours plunged into the river . The victims were identified as 34-year-old Daniel Thompson and 29-year-old Tristan Hill, both of New York; 26-year-old Trevor Cadigan and 26-year-old Brian McDaniel, both of Dallas; and 29-year-old Carla Vallejos-Blanco, of Argentina. The pilot, 33-year-old Richard "Rick" Vance, was the only one to survive the crash.The preliminary report summarizes the pre-flight activities, passenger briefings and the sequence of events leading up to the accident as described by the pilot during a post-accident interview.The NTSB's examination of the helicopter is detailed in the report, including continuity of flight controls, continuity of drive, condition of rotor blades and the position of controls and switches. Descriptions of the engine, emergency float system, seats and restraint systems are also contained in the report.Related: Expert says simple device may have prevented East River helicopter crash According to investigators:Vance said he he twice told the passengers, as part of two safety briefings, how to use the cutting tools located on the harnesses in the event they needed to cut themselves out. They were using restraints and tethers to allow them to reposition themselves around the chopper to take pictures.The doors were off, and some passengers sat on the side of the chopper floor, with their feet on the chopper's skids.At one point during the flight, the pilot noticed the front passenger's restraint was hanging from the seat. He asked the front seat passenger to put it back on. The pilot said this was not entirely unusual, and passengers have inadvertently done so in the past.Later, the front seat passenger turned sideways and extended his feet outside the helicopter. At that time, the helicopter turned right faster than the pilot expected and began to suffer what appeared at the time to be engine failure.After telling the passengers to get back in their seats as the aircraft began to descend, the pilot took several steps to restart the engine, but his first two tries were unsuccessful. He then began to prepare for a water landing and activated the floats at about 800 feet.He reached down and noticed the emergency fuel shut off level was in the off position, and a portion of the front seat passenger's tether was underneath the lever.He turned the fuel level back on and tried to restart the engine, and it began to work, but he didn't have enough altitude to fully restart. He positioned the lever back to off, hit the water, climbed up onto the belly and called for help.The full preliminary report is available online ---------- </s> (CNN) The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released a preliminary report on a deadly helicopter crash in New York's East River .

Five people died when the Liberty Helicopters chopper crashed on March 11. The passengers had chartered the trip for a private photo shoot.

The preliminary report does not provide analysis and does not discuss probable cause.

"The information in the report is preliminary and subject to change as the NTSB's investigation progresses," the NTSB said.

Key points from the report include:

The pilot said he gave a safety briefing to passengers before the flight

When the the helicopter crashed, the five passengers drowned because they were unable to break free from harnesses meant to prevent them from falling out.

The pilot told NTSB investigators he provided a safety briefing to the passengers before takeoff. The briefing included a description of how to use a cutting tool to cut their restraints, the pilot said.

During the flight, passengers could turn to face out of the helicopter's open sides to take photos.

When the helicopter was flying along the east side of Central Park, "the front seat passenger turned sideways, slid across the double bench seat toward the pilot, leaned back, and extended his feet to take a photograph of his feet outside the helicopter."

The pilot thought the chopper experienced engine failure

The pilot "observed engine pressure and fuel pressure warning lights and believed he had experienced an engine failure," the report says.

As the pilot made his way to the East River to execute an emergency landing, "he reached down for the emergency fuel shutoff lever, he realized that it was in the off position. He noted that a portion of the front seat passenger's tether was underneath the lever."

The pilot attempted to restart the engine as the helicopter fell toward the river, but the engine "wasn't spooling up fast enough," leading him to turn off the emergency fuel lever again.

According to the NTSB, the fuel flow control lever was found in the off position

The helicopter quickly began to fill with water as it landed in the river. The pilot attempted to unscrew the carabiner of the front seat passenger, but then "decided to egress the helicopter."

An NTSB examination of the helicopter found the engine was not impacted by "oil or fuel leaks, fire, or uncontainment," according to the report.

"The fuel flow control lever was found in the off position. The fuel shutoff lever was found in the open position."

The harness systems and restraint systems were made by different manufacturers

The restraint system for passengers was manufacturer-installed, but the harness system for the passengers was not installed by the helicopter manufacturer, the report states.

The harness system was comprised of off-the-shelf components consisting of a nylon fall-protection harness that was attached at the occupants' back by a locking carabiner to a lanyard, the report says. This allowed the passengers to move in the chopper.

A "small pouch was attached to the harness and contained a cutting tool."

Previous developments

The March 11 crash was the deadliest crash involving a national doors-off helicopter tour, and Liberty Helicopters' third crash in the past 11 years

Liberty Helicopters posted a statement on its website after the crash, saying it was "focused on supporting the families affected by this tragic accident and on fully cooperating with the FAA and NTSB investigations."

In the wake of the crash, the NTSB issued an urgent safety recommendation calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to ban commercial flights' use of harness systems that don't allow for easy release during emergencies.

The FAA issued an order suspending "doors off" flights involving "restraints that cannot be released quickly in an emergency." But NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said "the FAA has not outlined how or when they plan to take action."

"Definitive action needs to be taken," he said. </s> KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The four people still missing overnight after a duck boat capsized during high winds Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake have been found dead.

That raises the death toll to 17 people who were aboard a Ride the Ducks boat, which sank as a thunderstorm created dangerous conditions with high waves on the lake and the boat was caught out in the open.

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader confirmed the four additional deaths around 10:30 a.m. Friday after appearing earlier in the day at a press conference with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

Later in the afternoon Gov. Parson said he spoke to an aunt and 13-year-old boy who lost nine members of their family in the tragedy.

Missouri State Highway Patrol divers have located the boat , which is believed to be under 80 feet of water.

Rader showed reporters the area where the boat sank.

First look: Duck boat sank near the red part of the Branson Belle. Was trying to get to dock seen at end of the video. @41actionnews pic.twitter.com/CwxqUfA5dy — Tom Dempsey (@KCTomDempsey) July 20, 2018

The vessel sank in 40 feet of water, but rolled into deeper water and is on its wheels at the bottom of the lake, according to Rader. The boat will remain underwater until Monday pending investigation.

Details about what caused the accident were scant, prompting Rader and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who attended a Friday morning press conference, to plead for patience.

The investigation by Stone County deputies and the Missouri State Highway Patrol continues, but the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board — entities assisting with the investigation — will determine what caused the incident.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance officers also are at the scene conducting an investigation.

According to OSHA Spokesman Scott Allen, the company "Ride the Ducks International LLC" has no past history of safety violations.

“There’s a lot of healing that has to take place right now …,” Parson said. “I know everybody wants answers, but the priority right now is to protect the families, unite the families and deal with the situations they’re in.”

There were 17 people, ranging in age from 1 to 70 years old, confirmed dead late Friday morning. The four people who had still been missing and presumed dead were recovered by mid-morning.

Seven people aboard the boat, which had 29 passengers and two crew members when it went down, were injured and seven others were rescued without injury.

The captain of the capsized boat survived, according to Rader, but his identity and the identities of the passengers who died have not been released.

“Right now, we’re still working with families and making notifications,” Rader said.

After the morning press conference, Branson Mayor Karen Best confirmed to 41 Action News that Ride the Ducks Captain Robert Williams , a driver with the lake-tour company, was among the 17 people who died.

As the boat went under, a Stone County deputy who was aboard the nearby Showboat Branson Belle, land-based workers for the lake-tour company and passengers who were waiting to board the boat’s next excursion went into the water to attempt and assist in the rescue.

There were life jackets in the boat, but it’s unclear how many, if any, passengers were wearing a floatation device, Rader said.

“I think it’s going to take some time to answers those questions,” Parson said, urging patience with the investigation to avoid speculation and promised to release a full report in the future.

Parson said he hasn’t spoken to President Trump, but said his staff has been in contact with White House staff.

Trump has been briefed about the situation and tweeted his condolences Friday morning. </s> NEW YORK — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered no more “doors off” helicopter rides that involve restraints that cannot be released quickly in an emergency.

The order comes following an investigation into the hazards of restraints after five people drowned when a helicopter crashed into the East River last Sunday.

When emergency workers dove into the frigid waters of New York’s East River to reach the downed helicopter, they found a disturbing scene.

The harnesses meant to keep the passengers safe on the doors-off helicopter flight had turned into death traps.

“One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we’re told, is the five people besides the pilot were all tightly harnessed,” Fire Department of New York Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

“So these harnesses had to be cut and removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter, which was upside-down at the time and completely submerged.”

Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29; Brian McDaniel, 26; Trevor Cadigan, 26; Tristan Hill, 29; and Daniel Thompson, 34, all died due to accidental drowning, according to the medical examiner.

All five were passengers in a Liberty Helicopters aircraft when it crashed into the East River around sunset on Sunday. The pilot, Richard Vance, 33, was the only person to survive the crash.

On Friday, it was announced that the FAA will order operators and pilots to take immediate actions to control or mitigate this risk. Until then, the FAA will order no more “doors off” operations that involve restraints that cannot be released quickly in an emergency.

Open door photo chopper tours are legal, but it’s unclear how much safety training their pilots and operators have. Investigators are also looking at the harnesses there to protect and keep passengers safe as they lean out for spectacular photos.

Liberty Helicopters describes itself as “the largest and most experienced helicopter sightseeing and charter service in New York City,” with a fleet of 10 Airbus helicopters. Sunday’s deadly incident was the third time in 11 years one of its helicopters crashed in New York. </s> (CNN) The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered no more "doors-off" aircraft flights unless the passenger safety restraints can be quickly released in an emergency, the agency said.

The FAA also said it will conduct a top-to-bottom review of its rules governing these flights to make sure there are no additional safety gaps for passengers.

The announcement comes in the wake of the New York helicopter crash in which five passengers died . The helicopter, with the doors removed so passengers could take unobscured photographs, experienced engine problems and crashed in the East River. Its pontoons did inflate but then it flipped upside down and sank into the water.

The pilot was able to remove himself from his harness and escape, but all five passengers died from accidental drowning, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner said.

The helicopter was owned by Liberty Helicopters. The passengers bought tickets for the flight through FlyNYON, which advertised its harnesses and doors-off helicopter rides earlier in the day Sunday.

Read More </s> The victims were a pilot and passenger on a Taquan Air Beaver floatplane, according to a statement from the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. A floatplane is an aircraft with pontoons or floats that allow it to land on water.

No one else was on the plane, the statement read. Local "good Samaritans and local emergency responders" were able to help with the wreckage before the Coast Guard arrived on scene.

The circumstances of the crash are not being released at this time, the borough said in a statement, and the names of the deceased will not be released until next of kin have been notified.

Taquan Air directed all inquiries about this incident to the National Transportation Safety Board. CNN has reached out to the NTSB.
The US National Transportation Safety Board releases a preliminary investigative report containing new information on the accident, in which five passengers drowned when they were trapped in the wreckage.