The most breathtaking way to capture New York City’s iconic skyline from above is now mired in scrutiny after a tourism helicopter crashed, killing everyone on board.

There are “upwards of 30,000 to 50,000 of these types of tourist flights each year” in New York alone, said Peter Goelz, former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “It’s a big business in New York.”

Beyond the Big Apple, sightseeing flights are also popular in Hawaii, Alaska and Arizona, where tourists can soar above the Grand Canyon.

But helicopters don’t have all the strict requirements that passenger jets must have, such as so-called “black boxes” on board. And unlike pilots steering commercial jets, tourism helicopter pilots often double as sightseeing guides – pointing out photo ops and answering tourists’ questions while flying an aircraft solo.

Industry experts say safety is paramount, and tens of thousands of helicopter tourism flights land safely every year.

“If I didn’t think it was safe, I wouldn’t put my family on it,” said Jeff Smith, chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council – a nonprofit trade group that represents helicopter operators.

“Just to put it in perspective, I have three little kids. They’re 13, 11, and 10. And I put them and my friends and family on commercial air tours all the time.”

But Goelz won’t let his children board a helicopter tour.

“I’ve got two daughters who go away on trips all the time,” he said. “I tell them they cannot go on these things. I don’t think the safety oversight of these kinds of flights is robust enough.”

‘Black boxes’ weren’t on doomed helicopter flights, as they’re not required
More than a dozen people have died in US helicopter tour accidents since 2018. But flight recorders that may have helped with the investigations weren’t on board.

In 2018, five passengers on a “doors-off” helicopter tour drowned after the aircraft plunged into water and the tourists couldn’t free themselves from their safety harnesses. The tragedy prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue tighter regulations on such flights until safer harnesses were added.

The latest tragedy happened last week, when an aerial tour helicopter broke apart midair and plummeted into the Hudson River – killing a family of five and their pilot.

Helicopter crash in the Hudson River on April 10, 2025

Sources: Flightradar24, Google (image)

Graphic: Renée Rigdon,

The FAA ordered the tourism company, New York Helicopter, to halt operations immediately, the agency said.

While the cause of the calamity has not been identified, investigators revealed the helicopter did not have a flight data recorder – often called a “black box.”

A flight data recorder “keeps track of about 10,000 data points … everything from the vibration coming from the engine to the movement of the control,” Safety Analyst David Soucie said.

The “black boxes” are key to aviation safety because they leave critical clues for investigators after a crash – such as a pilot’s actions and possible mechanical issues.

But tourism helicopters don’t have to install flight data recorders – even though the NTSB has repeatedly clamored for that requirement since 2013.

Officers carry parts of a helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on April 10. Andres Kudacki/Getty Images

Mandating flight data recorders “would permit more definitive evaluation of the causes of fatal air tour accidents and identification of more effective measures to prevent them,” the NTSB said in a 2022 report titled “Failure of FAA to Implement NTSB Recommendations Contributed to Fatal Air Tour Helicopter Crash, NTSB says.”

The agency released that report after determining a 2019 crash in Hawaii might have been preventable had the FAA implemented a series of prior NTSB recommendations. The sightseeing crash in Hawaii killed all six passengers and their pilot.

But the NTSB doesn’t have the power to enact new aviation rules. Its job is to investigate major disasters and then use its findings to make safety recommendations to the FAA – which has the power to make new requirements.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy reiterated her call for more flight recorders after last week’s tragedy.

“We have issued recommendations in the past on recorders, crash-resistant recorders,” Homendy said Friday. “We’ve issued numerous recommendations on safety management systems.”

A 2016 FAA report sheds light on why the agency didn’t mandate flight data recorders on all helicopters.

“The current rulemaking environment requires that new regulations have a positive economic cost/benefit to society,” the report said. “The estimated cost for industry to comply with these recommendations is $20,000 or more per aircraft totaling $180 million.”

In a statement to , the FAA said it “takes NTSB recommendations seriously and has taken concrete actions to address tourism aviation safety.”

“The FAA and NTSB share the same goal of continually improving aviation safety,” the FAA said Wednesday.

“In 2024, we finalized a rule requiring most air tourism operators to implement Safety Management Systems and we are working to meet the requirements outlined in Section 363 of the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act. These efforts include developing additional rulemaking proposals to enhance safety for certain passenger-carrying operations.”

Why some safety recommendations don’t get enacted
There can be good reasons for not adopting some NTSB aviation suggestions, said Soucie, who was an FAA safety inspector for 17 years.

A sightseeing helicopter departs a heliport in Manhattan near the East River in 2019. David Boe/AP

One reason could be financial. The FAA must weigh the potential benefits of safety recommendations against the costs – which might eventually trickle down to passengers.

Other times, the FAA might decide a new safety rule could actually pose greater risks. One example involved commercial planes and parents holding small children in their laps.

“There was a recommendation that came across my desk when I was with the FAA, and it said we’re going to make every child on board the aircraft buy a seat and be in that seat when the aircraft takes off,” Soucie said.

“So we did the analysis. And guess what it found out? More people would die if we did that than if we didn’t,” he said.

“We did the calculations that if a family of four had to take a flight and they had to buy four seats as opposed to two seats and had to carry their children, then they would say, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ They would make the decision not to go because of the expense, and they would drive in their cars instead.”

And the rate of deaths from car travel is significantly higher than the rate of deaths from plane accidents.

Helicopter tourism safety has improved
The FAA has implemented numerous safety rules after previous tourism helicopter disasters.

A spate of the fatal sightseeing crashes at the Grand Canyon in the 1970s led to “the first time that they tried to control helicopter tourism at all,” Soucie said.

And the FAA increased helicopter tourism safety in Hawaii after a pilot navigated around other sightseeing aircraft and flew too close to a volcano decades ago, Soucie said.

“This guy came too close and in front of some other helicopters to get the best view. And he came so close to the volcano that the air was too hot. It was like 150-degree air, which means there’s very thin air. And the blades just can’t produce lift if it’s thin air,” Soucie said. “So (the helicopter) just starts falling down, and it can’t maintain its altitude.”

That copter descended to the ground slowly, and everyone on board survived. But it prompted new guidance about helicopter tourism traffic and designated helipads.

Before, tourism helicopters “came in from everywhere” – including dozens of launch sites on the Big Island alone, said Soucie, who worked on the Hawaii accident.

Afterward, helicopter operators took off from specific, designated helipads. “They actually coordinate when they take off and when they return,” Soucie said.

In popular air tour locales such as Hawaii and New York, streamlined, designated helipads or heliports are now common for helicopter tours.

Pilots juggle tour guide duties while flying at low altitudes
Imagine if a passenger on a commercial jet were allowed to chat with pilots throughout the flight, asking questions while the pilots pointed out great photo opportunities.

That scenario is similar to the kind of multitasking many tourism helicopter pilots perform. And while helicopters fly more slowly than commercial jets, helicopter pilots face unique challenges.

The view from a helicopter cockpit shows the Kohala Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii in December 2016. George Rose/Getty Images

“Helicopters are hard to fly. They’re multidimensional,” Goelz said. “You’re not just going up and down and left and right. You’re hovering. It’s a harder instrument to fly.”

The FAA has labeled the Hudson River and East River areas a “Special Flight Rules Area,” meaning pilots must follow location-specific procedures during their flight.

Air tour pilots must regularly communicate their positions over the Hudson River area, Smith said. “It’s aircraft to aircraft. It’s called common area frequency. There, they have specific points that they have to do radio callouts.”

In other words, every air tour pilot in the area must be dialed in to the same frequency and communicating locations with one another.

“The FAA calls it ‘See and avoid,’ and it’s been going on for a very long time. It is very effective,” Smith said. Many helicopters in the Northeast also have collision avoidance systems, he said.

In addition, all sightseeing helicopters must have their lights on and can’t fly faster than 140 knots, or 161 mph.

Ideally, sightseeing pilots wouldn’t have to double as tour guides while flying, said Goelz, the former NTSB managing director. Alternatives could include having a separate tour guide on board or playing a pre-recorded audio or video guide for passengers.

But some air tour passengers already use pre-recorded guides – especially international tourists who speak different languages, Smith said.

“I can tell you from experience – because I started in the air tour world in 1997 – a lot of (passengers) use headsets now, where you plug in with a headset and (hear) the tour,” Smith said.

Although sightseeing pilots double as tour guides, “it’s not like a tour that you would imagine on a double-decker bus, where someone’s sitting there on the radio and talking about everything for the entire time,” Smith said.

“What the tour pilot is doing is going, ‘That’s the Empire State Building. That’s Grant’s tomb. That’s the George Washington Bridge.’ And the radio is right there … he’s listening to the traffic,” he said. “And if it gets busy, the safety doesn’t suffer. The quality of the tour suffers.”

If needed, the pilot will say, ‘I need everybody to be quiet, I’m listening to the radio,’” Smith said. “Usually, there’s a very good rapport between the pilot and the passengers.”

If pilots need to concentrate while getting peppered with questions, “they’ll shut down that communication,” Smith said. “There’s actually an isolate button. They can push the isolate button, and it’ll isolate the pilot from the passengers’ (voices).”

What to do before boarding a helicopter sightseeing flight
Tourists who are eager to try the thrilling experience “need to do their homework” before selecting a company, Goelz said.

“Find out that these carriers, the operators, have got a solid safety record, that they follow the rules, that their pilots are trained,” he said.

Tourists can also check the FAA’s website to see if the company has a track record of accidents.

But air tour companies prioritize safety just as much as the tourists, Smith said. No pilot or company wants to jeopardize their own lives or livelihoods for any risky flight.

“The amount of money an accident costs a company is almost unfathomable. Of course, they are insured. But it’s no different than driving the car – your insurance rates go through the roof. Sometimes the insurance company will drop you,” Smith said.

“So it’s not taken lightly, (like) ‘Hey, we’ve got to go make this $800 on this tour in this bad weather,’” he said. “Because your consequences of having an incident or accident (are) going to be a lot more than $800.”