Second Helicopter Crash into the East River

Another helicopter went down in the East River this afternoon. This is not
helping GA.

A friend runs a competing company to the one that went down four days ago.
His pilots all stopped by the Port Authority and watched security camera
footage about the earlier accident. They all agreed that it was almost
certainly a simple overloaded aircraft in high density altitude accident.
They said that the pilot had just topped off the tanks and put eight people
in the chopper. Me friend's company has been running half tanks and being
very careful about loads, since the temps had been running well into the
90's. The guy who lost it took off in ground effect, left the pier and
dropped into the river as soon as he flew out of ground effect over the
pier. Interesting perspective. Oops.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)