World News | NYC Mayor Says Family of Spanish Tourists Died in Helicopter Crash into Hudson River
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing a family of Spanish tourists, including three children in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the US, officials said.
New York, Apr 11 (AP) A helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing a family of Spanish tourists, including three children in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the US, officials said.
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 pm and that the dead had been recovered and removed from the water.
Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.
Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.
“There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard,” she said in a phone interview.
Video posted to social media showed parts of the chopper splashing into the water, and the overturned aircraft was submerged, with rescue boats circling it.
The skies were overcast at the time, but visibility over the river was not substantially impaired. Rescue crews had to deal with 45-degree water temperatures.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, including by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police departments. It was initially developed for the US Army before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate.
The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the river. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on nearby streets with their lights flashing.
The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.
Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.
A medical transport plane killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighbourhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington — the deadliest US air disaster in a generation.
The crashes and other close calls have left some people worried about the safety of flying. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)