Another Helicopter down in the East River

[annabanana]

Just south of the UN. 5 people on board.
(NBC-NY breaking)

[sabra]

1. I am not a fan of coincidences...

[Spinzonner]

7. Wanna trade for an earthquake cluster

[Ian David]

12. Nonsense. Helicopters have to return to the river each year to spawn

The miracle is seeing all those Jet Ski finish moulting and take flight for the first time.

Breathtaking.

[thoughtanarchist]

16. Bwa!

:rofl:

I feel sorry for the crash victims but...that was damn funny

[montanacowboy]

22. OMG

I am LOL, that is soooooooo funny

[KAZ]

37. Thanks. I needed that.

Too good.

[obxhead]

39. roflmfao

Thanks
edit:
The news sez they all were rescued. I do hope they all survive. we already have far to much death/famine going on. (even though they are MBNA)

[jhain]

40. Brilliant!!!!!!!

I am pounding the desk to bits here!!

LOLOLOL

[Xipe Totec]

41. Man, You have a gift for Sarcasm

Kudos!

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. WTF?

It's odd for helicopters to go down at all. No less two in the same area in the same week.

[annabanana]

3. Well, there aren't that many heliports in Manhatten..

They're choppering over the East River now

[TomPainesBones]

26. The East River is actually a helicopter path

(For obvious reasons I'd say)
I live a couple blocks from there. I see one flying by every few minutes.

[annabanana]

29. Hi TPB..

Welcome to DU
:toast:

[Ian David]

30. More crashes because there's more traffic.

Well, here's my personal assessment of the odds:

1) Coincidence- 60%
2) Contaminated fuel or other negligence- 35%
3) Deliberate sabotage by disturbed individual- 10%
4) Right-wing conspiracy -4.9999%
5) Advanced secret technology by government agents- 0.0001%

Odds subject to revision as new information comes in.

[annabanana]

31. so far that sounds about right..

Let's see who's copter this was, and who was on it....

[leftynyc]

33. I'm sure this is just a coincidence but

I was walking passed the UN earlier today (around 11:30am) and 33 (yes, when you see that many, you start to count) police cars speeding up 1st ave with sirens and lights flashing. Figured it was some kind of drill.

[annabanana]

4. Divers down.. the Copter is completely submerged

[maddezmom]

5. doesn't sound good

:scared:

[annabanana]

6. There are some rescued....

no real numbers yet, or what kind of copter..

[Renew Deal]

8. Video at www.wnbc.com

www.wnbc.com

[Just Me]

9. That is so odd.

What is going on?

Are the people okay?

Who are they?

Who were the people on the 1st one that went down, anyone know?

[annabanana]

10. the first one was tourists...n/t

[Ian David]

15. Could it be contaminated fuel?

Or maybe someone said, "Can you get closer to the river so we can see where that other helicopter went down?"

[annabanana]

23. now cut that out..n/t

[annabanana]

11. "at least 3 rescued"

they think 6 - 8 on board

[annabanana]

17. now 4 rescued...

[sabra]

13. Are those people under the white sheets?

[annabanana]

18. warming blankets... to fight shock

FAA says 6 - 10 on board
Belleview expecting 5 patients

[Cooley Hurd]

14. The weather's been pretty rough here in the NE...

We've got strong, crazy winds upriver here in Albany area...

[annabanana]

19. news copter pilot says "perfect flying weather" here in city.n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

24. NY1 saying all passengers have been accounted for...

...and are alive.:thumbsup:

[annabanana]

25. wow. . . how lucky would THAT be?

all surviving...

[annabanana]

20. NYPD says 3 missing

[damntexdem]

21. They ought to send those helicopters over safer terrain ...

like Baghdad.

[Renew Deal]

27. NBC: 8 people found.

Don't know the medical status.

[annabanana]

28. calling it a "corporate" copter...

[HockeyMom]

32. Hot weather?

some "expert" talking about how helicopters have trouble in "hot, humid weather". Where the hell is that guy calling from? It's BEAUTIFUL today - 70s and no humidity.

[obxhead]

42. yeah

and that's why we use 'em in the desert, right.

[Suich]

38. Do they have suited-up divers on call all the time?

They seem to get in the water pretty fast.

Just wondering...

Susan

[RebelOne]

34. OK, I try not to believe some events are conspiracies,

but this is really too much of a coincidence. Now, if a 3rd chopper goes down, then there is something to worry about.

[emcguffie]

35. They were all MBNA execs. NT

[killbotfactory]

36. karma's a bitch

[Occulus]

43. Second helicopter crashes in NYC in 4 days

NEW YORK (AP) — A helicopter carrying top executives of the financial services company MBNA Corp. plunged into the East River on Friday, the second helicopter crash this week in the waters off Manhattan.

The two pilots and all six passengers were rescued from the choppy water. One pilot was hospitalized in critical condition. The other seven were released from the hospital Friday night, including the company's chief executive, Bruce Hammonds.

The Sikorsky S-76 went down seconds after taking off from the 34th Street heliport near the United Nations. The chopper made it barely one block north before it suddenly tumbled tail-first into the water.

more...

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-46/111905461488770.xml&storylist=national

Could this have anything to do with what's discussed in this thread?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[jobycom]

44. Nah, I doubt it. I doubt a helicopter could crash in NYC

without it having some top exec from some corporation embroiled in a scandal or controversy.

[Occulus]

45. heh, you're right about that

But, consider who was aboard...

And consider the thefts talked about in the thread I linked to. It's all mighty suspicious- that's why I added the other link.

[pimpbot]

48. With the way MBNA treats customers, I could care less

who of their execs crashed into the water. I hate that my bank has a deal with them to provide the credit cards...

[nicholieeee]

46. very interesting point

unfortunately...i have no answer.

[Historic NY]

47. Nah.....its been quite mild and very windy the last few days.

I was in NY Sunday and it was hot...we have had a cooling and its been very windy the last 2 day with heavy thunderstorms late in the day. The helipads are right off the water.

[Occulus]

49. Great place to put 'em, huh?

Sheesh. And then they wonder why. :eyes:

[TomClash]

50. "carrying top executives of the financial services company MBNA Corp."

And they still rescued them? Maybe the rescue workers didn't know who they were saving. :bounce:

[Jose Diablo]

51. Problem solving, pattern recognition

We humans are very good at problem solving. One of the ways we solve problems is to continuously seek patterns of all the signals we receive from the environment, and seek deeper meanings from these signals as to answer a question if there are hidden dangers or maybe hidden opportunities to prosper.

Now we hear about 2 seemingly unrelated events, the theft of personal financial data from large data bases under control of individuals that end-up in a river because the helicopter they were in, went down. Now the helicopter going down happens not once, but another helicopter also went down a short time earlier and we attempt to connect the events of the theft of the data and the helicopter crash.

Are they related? How can we say if we do not have enough information?

The question I have is what caused the helicopter crash? Although there is a lot of randomness to events in the world, commercial helicopters generally are not part of this randomness. The pilots are well trained and experienced, the helicopters are well maintained, all these things tend to reduce the randomness of the world into a defined reliability of safe transportation. So why did the helicopters crash? The report of the crash said the helicopter spun tail first into the river. That sounds like a mechanical malfunction to me. But without researching the crash, this is all speculation.

I am somewhat intrigued by the seeming 'connection' between the theft of data and the near death of executives responsible for that data. Are they connected? And if connected, is there a deeper meaning to the theft, beyond just hackers/crackers looking for illegal sources of money?

I don't know, maybe. But then again, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Edit: I researched these questions, and asked my 'Magic 8 Ball' toy I have kept from my youth. It's answer? "Ask the question later" was it's answer.