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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?
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The rotor blades killed four passengers, Vic Morrow-style? Gah, that must've made one helluva mess.
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!
watch the ending of coogan's bluff, they take off from the pan am building.
Clearly the city needed more bike lanes back then as well
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.
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.
Sorry, I meant to type "if that's the type you flew in," not to state that it was.
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
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...
Yeah, one of the blades killed a pedestrian who was more than a good half block away.
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!!!
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.
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?
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.
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.
Nice Mustang in that photo.
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...