a tragedy on the Hudson after a tourist helicopter crashed into the river late Thursday killing a family of five visiting from Spain including three young children and their parents both tech executives for Seammens along with the 36-year-old pilot who according to authorities was a Navy Seals veteran the chopper lifted off from a Manhattan helport taking a common route along the Hudson River then authorities say about 16 minutes after takeoff the aircraft crashed into the water now a warning this video may be disturbing for some viewers the helicopter flipped and spiraled before crashing upside down near the Jersey City shoreline scattering debris across the river the aircraft's main fuselage was pulled from the river Thursday night but the National Transportation Safety Board today began their first full day of investigating the crash nypd divers are actively searching for pieces of the helicopter they say have yet to be recovered including the main rotor main transmission roof and tail structures investigators are asking the public to send photos video or any information related to the crash but declined to give a preliminary cause for the aircraft's failure now helicopter tours have a controversial and deadly history with growing calls to end or limit the flights 25 people have been killed in New York City sightseeing helicopter accidents in the last 40 years according to federal data it's an issue New Jersey Congressman Rob Mendez has been trying to tackle sponsoring two bills that would force the FAA to more closely regulate the industry and just a month ago leading a letter to the Trump administration asking for their help he joins me now congressman Rob Mendez thanks for coming in really appreciate it um were you at the site yesterday and can you share a little bit about what you saw what you learned yeah so we were we were able to go down there you know obviously I'm in Jersey City so when we got back from Washington we made a point to go over there um you saw the immense uh rescue effort that was underway um an immense coordination between uh NY FD Port Authority who controls the site Jersey City Fire Jersey City OEM um so a lot of activity and a lot of pedestrians who were around uh who were because it was right there by the pier yeah it was that was one of the Listen it's an immense tragedy uh especially once we knew about the family that was on board and and the children that were on board um but also for us in in the district in in Hudson County how close it was to the shoreline you know we deal with helicopters all the time something that we've been involved in since taking office uh but to see where it landed and the closeness to not just the shoreline but also to critical infrastructure like the ventilation shaft uh that that is used by the port authority for the Holland tunnel so things that were in real close proximity where this helicopter landed the tragedy is the loss of life uh but also this is definitely something that the community is concerned about yeah i mean I know you've heard from the community since taking office since before taking office um about those concerns there have of course been calls prior to this and in the wake of it to just all out ban some of these sightseeing helicopters and the tours and the sort of non-essential traffic that it brings but I mean from what you've learned in your time um working with constituents on this how big of an issue is it is there quite a bit of air traffic from these tours yeah I mean we have the the Carne Hellport uh where a lot of the tours originate from and so that creates um a real challenge for residents of the district because they take off from Carney and they go all along the waters you have Jersey City Bayon Wehawk in West New York um and there has been a lot of outreach to our office we had an FA workshop uh took months to plan to get the FA to commit to it but we felt it was really important that they hear the concerns of the community that's what we've uh advocated for whether it's through legislation last month we sent a letter with 11 other members after the tragic crash at Reagan National um because we have congested airspace you know I visited the air traffic control tower at Newark you have JFK LaGuardia Newark the I think the busiest general aviation airport um at Teterboro and then you have these helicopters right all over densely populated communities and for us you know those three airports are obviously critical essential the helicopters are largely not and you know we've kept pushing to get better regulation by the FAA over these non-essential helicopters that's what we've been doing to date but moving forward all options have to be on the table including banning um air tourism helicopters or non-essential helicopters is there any bystate talk at the federal level i mean we have an assembly woman Ramirez who introduced legislation essentially to say "Hey any state-owned helellipads um it would be banned and then there's similar talks on the New York side about banning it from city-owned helellipads."

Are you in conversations with your counterparts about that everything that we've done on this issue has been both New Jersey and New York members so um you know it's kind of hard to differentiate i mean right they take off and they're going over and that's right and that's and so where you've seen the the most effective uh ability for government entities to legislate around this is at the local level right because they have the ability to control the helports in New York here in Carne and Lyndon um so you've seen success on the New York side of the river with that uh but moving forward in terms of dealing with the FAA and try to get greater oversight and regulation of this air tourism industry that we've worked on a bystate uh basis you know someone like Jerry Nadler Dan Goldman Alexandria Casio Cortez you know we've all been working together because this is an issue we hear from all of our residents both on the New York and New Jersey side where does that stand in terms of more oversight i mean because the FAA controls the airspace at 500 ft right um and so there are folks who say "Well rather than an all-out ban why can't we just have more safety protocols?"

You recall after the 2018 crash in the Hudson where they changed the the rules about harnesses about the open doors i mean why not something like that for an approach so we we again we'll we'll consider all options especially once the investigation's complete and we understand what happened in this specific instance more generally we'll consider all options we've been pushing for as tailored of an approach as possible right we've tried to be thoughtful about this to get the FAA to engage but at the end of the day it's clear there needs to be greater oversight greater regulation of non-essential helicopters not just here in this region but also places like out west around the Grand Canyons or in Hawaii where you see a high volume of non-essential uh helicopters so we'll take we'll consider all options but again just given the tragedy of this instance and how close it happened to our shoreline um there's going to have to be uh a real serious conversation with these operators because if they can't meet heightened oversight high-end regulations then you have to wonder why they should continue to operate at all congressman Robin Nendes thanks so much for stopping in we appreciate it appreciate you having me here [Music]