An Airbus Helicopters AS350 B2 after a fatal March 11, 2018, crash into New York City’s East River. The NTSB found that a passenger’s harness/tether caught on the fuel shutoff valve and stopped fuel flow to the engine.
An analysis of accidents involving U.S. sightseeing flights showed that they recorded a lower fatality rate than that for general aviation accidents, largely because sightseeing requires favorable weather and daylight, according to a new study.1
The study was based on an examination of accident reports from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database from 2008 through 2018. A search of the database for those years revealed 95 airplane and helicopter accidents involving commercial sightseeing operations, including 16 fatal accidents with a total of 58 fatalities. The fatality rate for sightseeing flights was 16.2 percent, compared with the rate for total general aviation accidents of 18 to 23 percent.
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