Hard landing on the New Jersey side of the Hudson

This ABC News report shows a New York City sightseeing helicopter coming down in Bayonne, New Jersey, on the morning of the broadcast. The footage follows the helicopter to the ground on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, where it lands hard and starts to break apart. The tail rotor breaks off during the landing. A reporter at the scene points to the damaged tail and to the separated section, which ended up embedded in a nearby fence. Nobody was hurt.

Mayday call and autorotation

The report plays part of the radio traffic between the pilot and air traffic control. She calls mayday, mayday and tells the controller that the helicopter is at low altitude and needs to land outside the airport. She reports an engine out and a loss of rotation. The controller acknowledges and asks whether the helicopter is relatively stable. Her answer is short: so far, stable. Moments later the helicopter is on the ground. ABC News explains that once the pilot understood the engine had failed, she entered an autorotation. In an autorotation the engine no longer drives the main rotor. The air flowing up through the rotor disc during the descent keeps the blades turning, and the pilot uses the energy stored in them to glide down and cushion the touchdown. The report praises her calm handling of the emergency.

Maintenance flight and FAA investigation

No tourists were on board. The pilot and one passenger were flying a maintenance flight when the engine failed. The report adds that the helicopter is the same model as the one that crashed into the Hudson River a year earlier, an accident in which the pilot and a family of five died. The FAA is investigating the hard landing in Bayonne. The report does not name the operator or the helicopter type and gives no cause for the engine failure or for the tail rotor separating.