The last 91 seconds of the helicopter’s flight path.
The non-instrument-rated corporate helicopter pilot had fretted about the weather for hours before taking off in an Agusta A109E from a New York City heliport in marginal visual meteorological conditions.
About five minutes after departing from the East 34th Street Heliport at 1332 local time, the pilot contacted the fixed-base operator (FBO) and said he wanted to return, adding soon afterward that he “did not know where he was,” the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its final report on the June 10, 2019, accident. Three minutes later, the helicopter crashed into the roof of a 54-story building, killing the pilot. The helicopter was destroyed.
The NTSB cited as the probable cause of the accident “the non-instrument-rated pilot’s decision to initiate the flight into marginal visual flight rules and instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in spatial disorie…
