DEATH PLUNGE
5 killed after charter chopper crashes into freezing E. River
Moment of impact on Sunday as helicopter’s skids hit the East River before craft tilted and went under. Above, a victim on a stretcher after being pulled out. The five passengers died after being trapped as copter sank in the frigid water, while the pilot escaped.
A HELICOPTER chartered for a photo shoot plunged into the East River Sunday evening, killing all five passengers in a devastating crash caught on video.
Only the pilot survived the 11-minute flight, emerging from the frigid water desperately yelling for help, an FDNY spokesman said.
Footage of the deadly incident, which was posted on social media before any of the deaths were confirmed, showed the copter progressively losing altitude until it slammed into the water, bounced and tilted over.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday.” the frantic pilot called to an air traffic controller moments before the splash landing. “Engine failure. We’ve got an engine failure over the East River.”
For a few seconds, the rotors sliced into the water until the helicopter went under with six people, including the pilot, still trapped inside.
“There were six people on the helicopter,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. “The pilot freed himself. The other five did not. The police, fire divers entered the water and removed the other five.”
The FDNY responded within five minutes, the commissioner said.
“The pilot is OK,” Nigro said. “He went to the hospital to be checked out, but he was able to get out.”
Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the passengers had chartered the helicopter for a photo shoot.
Officials said the copter sank in about 50 feet of water in the middle of the river, near E. 89th St. and Roosevelt Island. The current was moving at 4 mph.
“It took a while for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly, as fast as they could,” Nigro said.
Nigro said the harnesses designed to be worn for safety may have actually hindered the passengers’ escape.
First responders were not only operating in frigid water, but they were working against time inside a helicopter that by the time they arrived had turned upside down.
“The pilot freed himself, was taken by one of our fire boats ashore and was out on an ambulance,” Nigro added. “One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we’re told, is the five people besides the pilot were all tightly harnessed, so these harnesses had to be removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter, which was upside down at the time.”
Officials said the chopper was
owned by New Jersey-based Liberty Helicopter Tours.
The Kearny sightseeing operation was involved with a midair collision over the Hudson River in August 2009 that claimed the lives of six people on the helicopter, including the pilot. Three more people were killed on the single-engine aircraft it hit.
Investigators concluded that the helicopter was flying too high and the pilot of the Piper PA-32R was distracted by a Teterboro Airport dispatcher and failed to see the chopper, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.
In 2007, a helicopter with the same company crashed into the Hudson during a tour of the city. An off-duty EMT on board the aircraft helped the passengers escape.
Officials said it was too early to determine what caused Sunday’s crash.
Amateur video shows the commercial helicopter crashing into the water, its rotor still spinning, and then overturn.
“Just witnessed a helicopter crash into the East River . . . hope everyone’s ok,” wrote Twitter user @JJmagers, who posted the video online just after 7:15 p.m.
Brianna Jesme, 22, who witnessed the afternoon crash, said, “It sort of landed sideways and then it flipped over. There was a good solid minute that no one came out of the helicopter.”
She added, “We didn’t know if it was supposed to be happening. Once it went down, we realized that it wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The NYPD’s aviation and harbor unit rushed to the scene, as did the FDNY’s harbor unit, sending divers to search for the helicopter’s occupants.
A privately operated tugboat managed to rescue the pilot, authorities said. Police and fire recovered the five passengers.
“It was completely submerged,” another eyewitness Celia Skvaril, 23, said.
“We didn’t see the helicopter anymore and then a yellow raft popped up, and again we didn’t see or hear anyone until we saw a person on top of the raft screaming and yelling for help and waving.”
“It was a pretty hard hit and then it flipped over.”
Manhattan resident TuanLung Wang saw the scene unfold from his window.
“Some unexpected scene to see when you have a east river view in your room,” Wang tweeted. “20 min ago, my wife and I were chilling in our room enjoying the river view. Then we saw a flying object gradually landing on water. We thought it’s a helicopter, but we were not sure. So we called 911.”