Before boarding the 5 passengers were required to look at a 10-minute safety video which briefly explains that there is a knife in a pocket of the harness that has to be used to cut a strap in the back of the harness in case of emergency . Tourist are often so excited that they don’t really pay attention to the video. Additionally when someone is upside down panicking in freezing water , everything becomes much more difficult. One would hvae to be trained like a Navy Seal to free himself in such difficult conditions.
The pilot told investigators that a bag or a strap of a bag may have touched a fuel control switch however experts doubt that this theory is plausible. The pilot then realized he was experiencing engine trouble and decided to attempt an emergency landing. He could have chosen Central Park but he decided to land on the East River instead. The pilot executed what is known as an emergency auto rotation maneuver but the helicopter turned over and sank with the passengers stuck in their safety harnesses. The emergency inflatable pontoons didn’t function proprely. Read more in the NY Post.
Investigators also announced yesterday that they recovered a flight data recorder and a GoPro camera that may help them better understand the cause of the accident.