Maloney, Nadler, Velázquez: FAA Must Implement All NTSB Safety Rec's for Doors-Off Helicopters

New York Democratic Congressmembers Carolyn B. Maloney), Jerrold Nadler, and Nydia Velázquez are hitting the media trail in their attempt to force FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson to adopt all of the NTSB recommendations for doors-off helicopter sightseeing tours that were borne from the Board’s investigation of the March 11, 2018 crash of an Airbus AS350 helicopter in the East River that caused the deaths of all five passengers.

The members introduced the Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019 on October 28, 2019 to address 'recent deadly helicopter incidents in New York City.'

In their letter to Administrator Dickson, the Members note, “The NTSB investigation has cast light on several unacceptable oversights by the FAA that must be addressed in order to better ensure the safety of passengers, pilots, and innocent bystanders. The NTSB made ten recommendations to the FAA to address and correct those oversights in its final report on this accident, which was released in January 2020. We strongly urge you to adopt the NTSB recommendations.”

They also requested “information about the steps FAA is taking to better ensure that when it discovers dangerous or unauthorized operations, such as those found with the Liberty, Inc./NYONAir doors-off sightseeing tours, they are immediately reported to the proper authorities.”

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov