But it hasn’t said much about the latest crash, deferring to federal authorities.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has called for the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend Liberty’s license “until their safety record and the circumstances of this latest crash are fully assessed,” his office said.
Here’s what we know about the company’s previous two crashes since 2007:
2009: Crash with another plane kills 9 people
Nine people were killed, including all six on board the helicopter and three on the private plane.
The FAA said the helicopter and small plane were communicating on different radio frequencies “and were not aware of each other’s positions.”
Three months after the crash, the FAA tightened control of the airspace, separating low-altitude local aircraft flights over the Hudson River, such as a sightseeing helicopter, from flights going through the river airspace, such as the private plane.
2007: Helicopter crashes into Hudson River
Neither the pilot nor the seven passengers were seriously injured.
2018: Details emerge from most recent crash
The pilot, 33-year-old Richard Vance, has no prior accident nor incident history with the FAA, agency spokesman Jim Peters said.
He said the Eurocopter AS350 that Vance was flying had no incident history with the FAA.
More helicopter crashes than airplane crashes?
If it sounds like there are more helicopter crashes than airplane crashes, there’s a reason for that.
“And they tend to fly in more congested areas that may have more challenging wind and weather patterns,” Goelz said. “So you do tend to have higher accident rates.”
CNN’s Thom Patterson, Shimon Prokupecz and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.
Source : CNN