Why did NYC helicopter crash? No chance of recovery from catastrophic failure, experts say

It's too early to say what happened to the sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River in New York City, killing all six people on board, but aviation experts said a failure may have caused the aircraft's rotor to detach, leaving no chance for recovery.

The crash the afternoon of April 10 was seen on video, and appears to show the helicopter careening into the water followed by a rotor moments later.

A family of five from Spain, which included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife and three children, along with a pilot, were all killed, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the cause of the crash.

"Obviously, there was some type of catastrophic failure from the rotor, based on the video," Jim Brauchle, an aviation attorney with Motley Rice LLC who has represented families of crashes and a former Air Force navigator, told USA TODAY.

That failure could be mechanical or due to the actions of the pilot, and a full investigation is needed to get to the root of the cause, Brauchle said.

"When you see the rotor detaching, two things come to mind. One is there was some type of mechanical or structural failure that made it separate. Second is this phenomenon called 'mast bumping,'" Brauchle said.

Mast bumping happens when the rotor blade of the helicopter tilts too far down and strikes the helicopter, which can cut the tail of the helicopter off and appears to be what happened to this craft, he said.

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It can happen when a pilot makes too abrupt a maneuver, such as a quick dive or climb. It's not a terribly common phenomenon, but it's happened before, particularly in smaller helicopters that have two rotor blades, Brauchle said. That configuration is typical for sightseeing helicopters.

A helicopter pilot might have made such a hard maneuver to avoid an obstacle like a bird or a drone, or in an attempt to make the ride more thrilling for sightseers, Brauchle said.

Once the rotor detaches, the disaster is unrecoverable, Brauchle said. There was no chance at that point to prevent the catastrophe.

"They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened," Justin Green, an aviation lawyer and former helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps, told the Associated Press.

"There's no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It's like a rock falling to the ground. It's heartbreaking," Green said.

Rotor failure could have been mechanical problem

It's also possible there was a mechanical failure or a defect with a component of the helicopter, Brauchle said.

The CEO of New York Helicopter, the company that operated the sightseeing helicopter, told the New York Post he'd never seen such a failure in his 30 years owning the business.

“The only thing I could guess – I got no clue – is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know," Michael Roth said. “This is horrific,” Roth said. “But you gotta remember something, these are machines and they break.”

Metal fatigue can set in with the rotors after they're used for a long time. Brauchle said tourism helicopters are among the most used because they're out flying for hours every day, sometimes in harsh weather. Regular maintenance is important to prevent disasters, but some parts failures might not be detectible in an inspection, he said.

Brauchle said he helped represent the families of victims of a 2009 disaster involving a sightseeing helicopter that collided with a private plane over the Hudson River.

"It was this same kind of thing where parents and children got killed, and I just remember the devastation of those families. So really, my heart goes out to the relatives of the people that got killed, because it's just an unbearable loss," he said.