Witnesses heard noise before Hudson River helicopter crash

Witnesses described a loud noise just before a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, killing six people on board.

[rochellemcburnie]

😢😢😢😢😢. Condolences to their families and May their souls rest in peace.

[estelladog]

Horrible. What the heck is going on. So incredibly sad.

[Foenem]

Psalm 34:18. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

[manuelamurataj]

So sad 😢, my condolences to the families and friends 😢

When is NYC going to finally end helicopter tourism. How many more lives have to be lost ???

[kerrylogan]

There's no "everyday" failure that just snaps everything off like that—in normal operations, helicopter components are engineered with margins that prevent one isolated failure from unleashing the full fury of the engine. However, if we delve into the realm of a catastrophic, almost “what‐if” scenario, the failure would need to occur in a highly critical, high-torque component of the power transmission system. In a Bell 206 L-4, one of the most plausible candidates for such a failure is a sudden seizure in the engine’s free turbine (or freewheeling unit) that drives the main rotor.

Here’s why this makes sense:

Role of the Free Turbine/Freewheeling Unit: The Bell 206 L-4 uses a free-turbine design. In this configuration, the engine’s gas-generator section drives one turbine, which in turn powers another turbine connected to the main rotor gearbox. The free turbine is meant to allow a degree of “slip”—it decouples the engine’s high-speed output from the rotor’s lower, regulated rpm. If this free turbine were to seize (for instance, due to a lubrication failure, contamination, or an unforeseen material flaw), it would suddenly force the full, unmitigated engine torque into a system engineered to handle power only within controlled limits.

Cascading Effects on the Airframe: With an abrupt lock-up, the surge in torque would rapidly and dramatically load all connected components—the rotor head, mast, swash plate, and transmission. These parts are designed to transfer and manage power smoothly; a sudden jolt from a locked engine element would generate forces that could exceed the mechanical limits of not only these rotor components but also the supporting structures (such as the support beams and even the engine compartment floor). Once the integrity of the rotor mast and its attachments is compromised by such extreme torsional loads, the violent separation (and subsequently, the tearing away of the rotor assembly and even the tail rotor boom assembly) becomes a conceivable, though extraordinarily unlikely, consequence.

Why Such a Single-Point Failure Is Critical: The scenario requires a failure mode that instantaneously bypasses the normal damping and fail-safe features built into the helicopter’s power transmission. A seized free turbine essentially “locks” the rotor drive system. The engine, still capable of producing high rpm, would impose a shock loading on every subsequent link in the drive train. In a chain that is only as strong as its weakest link, this sudden and extreme torsional overload would tear through assemblies designed only for normally fluctuating loads, not an instantaneous surge of violent energy.

In summary, while it’s an extreme situation, a catastrophic seizure—specifically within the free turbine or a similar critical element of the rotor drive system—could, in principle, generate enough torque and dynamic load to tear apart the rotor-head, mast, swash plate, transmission, support beams, the engine compartment floor. The initial and sudden torque, causing a rapid yaw, would affect the tail rotor boom assembly immediately, resulting in its separation from the Bell 206 L-4 helicopter.

[LeeZeidel-sh]

Air travel is becoming extremely unsafe 😮

[JasmineBar-bi]

How many crashes since the beginning of 25 omg

[incglw]

Why not use the john goodman voiceover

[ivansalazar]

Why is it that no one was able to swim to the surface and survive?

[merrymartin]

Trump has broken the safest form of transportation. Media needs to keep count of the number of crashes and fatalities. God help the families

[incglw]

Showboating caught up with him or its all another fake weekly crash

[TomZart]

HUDSON RIVER CRASH KILLING SIX - 2025 ?
Tears are the raindrops of the soul
And there's one for all who die.
They are the silent words of grief
As they fall free from the eye.

The shortest verse in the Bible
Is the one where Jesus wept
So, if you hold back tears, shed them
When your pain is too harsh to accept.

Tears are lovelier than a smile
When they come from those you love
As they seek relief from sadness
When you're summoned from above.

Tears are a love-mates humble gift
When it's time to say goodbye
Though the eyes are wet and swollen
With time and patience they dry.

Time wipes tears from all faces
Whose hearts are tuned to sorrow.
Those that cry a thousand tears
Shall be blessed by tomorrow.

By Tom Zart

[RuggedBrotha]

If jesus was real, hes be like Super Man. So stop with all the jesus crapppp.

[cathleenwedlake]

🤔 Who was the important person, or persons, on that flight? A Foreign dignitary? A present or past U.S. dignitary? Was it deliberate? Just asking questions here. Black particles? Was it a bomb?

[buffalobill]

DEI .. over and over .. get some more women in charge ...

[RuggedBrotha]

Too many women in the control tower. They talk too much..