Helicopter crashes into roof of Midtown NYC building

[brooklynite]

13. None

Helicopter landings were banned decades ago after part of a helicopter fell off the Pan Am building

5 Killed in Helicopter Accident on Top of Pan Am Building

On May 16, 1977, a rotor blade broke off a helicopter on the roof of Manhattan’s Pan Am Building after the copter’s landing gear failed, causing it to turn sideways. The blade killed five people.

The New York Times reported: “Whirling like a giant boomerang, the blade struck four people on the roof-top madding pad, killing three instantly, then plunged over the skyscraper’s west parapet. About halfway down the gray tower, the blade crashed into a window and broke in two. One piece of the blade continued to fall, whirling onto Madison Avenue and killing a woman.”

The roof of the Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building), an 808-foot-tall building situated between Grand Central Terminal and the New York Central Building (Helmsley Building), was used as a helipad from 1965 to 1968, transporting passengers from Midtown to the Pan Am terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport. The helipad was reopened in February 1977, just three months before the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the accident was caused by “metal fatigue,” which caused the landing gear to fail. The Pan Am helipad was shut down following the accident and has not reopened.

https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/may-16-1977-helicopter-accident-on-top-of-pan-am-building-kills-five/