In Feb 1990 an Island 206L went down after take-off and for some reason the
floats werent even activated. A young boy on board was trapped when the ship
flipped over in the water and he expired.

An interesting side note to this incident. In the book "Sky Cops" written by
ex-NYPD Aviation pilot Richard Rosenthal, Chapter 3 deals with this crash. He
writes that after the PD scuba divers freed the boy from the wreckage, one of
the Aviation Units 412s was on scene in a very low hover ready to hoist the boy
aboard and fly him to the East 34st Heliport where EMS awaited. Suddenly an FD
boat came in rapidly not only forcing the copter to break off but almost
hitting the divers. They pulled the injured youth on board the boat and began
working on him. The PD pilot tried to contact them through a number of
frequencies so they could get him aboard the copter. But to no avail. He writes
they didnt even head for shore but kept working on him.The pilot Gunny
Rupprecht was fuming and he wrote out a scathing report about the FDs
incompetence. But nothing happened and the controversy faded away. To this
day Rupprecht believes if they had hoisted the youth aboard they could have
saved his life.

Gerard