Flashback: Remember New York Airways?

As noted in our newsletter this morning, on this day in 1953, the first commuter passenger service by helicopter began. New York Airways provided a lift for busy folks who wanted to avoid traffic.

Just a little over 10 years after launching, one of the flights from Idlewild Airport (now JFK), en route to Newark via Wall Street, crashed and killed all six on board. In the late '70s, the landing gear failed on a plane taking on passengers at the Pan Am building. "It tipped over; its spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth, and parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another. The accident precipitated the closure of the heliport for good." Yikes!

There's a great collection of old schedules and brochures here. Would you have ever gotten on this thing?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on July 9, 2009 5:14 PM

Comments [rss]

orca17

I also flew with NYA, in 1962. I was traveling with my parents from our home in Florida to visit my grandparents in eastern Canada. Our flight landed at Idlewild, but our connecting flight to Boston was leaving out of LaGuardia. To this day it remains the only time I've ever been on a helicopter. The flights we were connecting from and to were both on Northeast Airlines, another name that passed into aviation history long ago.

mdjoey

I rode the same type of helicopter in the photo, the fare was about $40 in the '70's. We flew from LGA to Newark and made a stop on top of the Pan Am building. It was one of the most exciting flights of my life. I, too wonder why we don't have supersonic planes and high speed transport any more, just taxis and SUV's. Oh, I forgot, the government's stimulus package, financed by deficits and more taxes on all of us, will provide all of this by october...

JMH

If you could get from midtown to JFK in ten minutes at a reasonable price back in the 70s, shouldn't we be able to do that now?
Unfortunately, that reasonable price presumably led to cost-cutting, which probably led to equipment failure like the one that caused this accident.

Detex

Well you still can... you can get a helicopter from the west side and the seaport to LGA or JFK for under $200. That is about the same as the $40 in 1975. Takes 10min and you can get on the chopper 30 min before your flight.

In today's money, $40 in 1975 is about $195...

ptginnyc

Yea, because there have been no accidents in the past decade. Sounds mildly dangerous no matter what (still a lot less dangerous than driving), despite the fact that I'm still a firm believer in standards and regulation.

JenChungsBaby

Nice Mustang in that photo.

jchez

Movie director Ridley Scott says that he was inspired to create the opening scene of Bladerunner based on the time that he landed on top of the Pan Am Building at night. He wanted to base the movie on New York City but that film's legendary budget problems prevented him from filming in New York. He still managed to use the idea of the "spinners" and the skyscraper landing because he couldn't let go of that image and he wanted to put it in a movie.

jchez

Movie director Ridley Scott says that he was inspired to create the opening scene of Bladerunner based on the time that he landed on top of the Pan Am Building at night. He wanted to base the movie on New York City but that film's legendary budget problems prevented him from filming in New York. He still managed to use the idea of the "spinners" and the skyscraper landing because he couldn't let go of that image and he wanted to put it in a movie.

RevWaldo

Being reminded that stuff like this used to exist always pisses me off a little. Aren't things supposed to get better in the future? If you could get from midtown to JFK in ten minutes at a reasonable price back in the 70s, shouldn't we be able to do that now?

Think2wice

The original intention was pretty cool. You fly from the airport or Stamford CT, land on the Pan-Am building and take an express elevator straight down to Grand Central Terminal.

No more, thanks to whoever it was responsible for maintaining that helicopter's landing gear.

NannyState

That was one bad accident atop the Pan Am building. The strut buckled and the rotor blades zinged the heads and torsos off some waiting passengers, tumbled over the side, stuck offices below then fell into the street. It was so gruesome that the thought of a return to service at that location quickly vanished. other proposals, including an airship never got off the drawing boards and so that flattop tower sits waiting for something new to come its way...

just saying

Yeah, one of the blades killed a pedestrian who was more than a good half block away.

Dead Himmler

That person must have been really unlucky. It's like winning the anti-lottery. I bet he just bent down to pick a nice shiny nickel off the street and shouted that it was his lucky day. Then the random of lifes seconds tick by and then BAM!!!

moneyries

Here's the full on accident report for all interested parties. Don't cause a gaper jam! http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR77-09.pdf

just saying

Funny you should ask. I really did fly on that helicopter which departed from the top of the then Pan Am (now MetLife) building but the helicopter I remember was much smaller than the one pictured above.

jaycjay

The one named in the accident report -- that's the type you flew in -- would have at least looked different than what's pictured above: it was a Sikorski S-61, so it had just a single main rotor and a tail rotor. That is, the more common general helicopter design instead of the tandem rotor pictured, which looks to be a Boeing Vertol 234.

The S-61 is pictured here, along with a story on another accident involving one.

jaycjay

Sorry, I meant to type "if that's the type you flew in," not to state that it was.

whitecastlerock

Clearly the city needed more bike lanes back then as well

JacqueMehoff

watch the ending of coogan's bluff, they take off from the pan am building.

theboneranger

in the paragraph above someone wrote, "In the late '70s, the landing gear failed on a plane taking on passengers at the Pan Am building"

so planes landed on the Pan Am building? holy shit!