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New York City Police helicopter hovers low over the Hudson River as it drops a police diver into the river (Pat Bradshaw/AP)
Update 10:30 p.m.: The National Transportation Safety Board says that a total of three bodies have been recovered from the Hudson; it is not clear whether the bodies are from the plane and/or helicopter. The diving recovery operations were called off in evening and will resume in the morning.
Additionally, Mayor Bloomberg's plans to "Tweet for a day" tomorrow (for his re-election campaign) have been postponed: "Due to the events surrounding the tragic air accident over the Hudson river on Saturday 8/8, Mayor Bloomberg will not be personally tweeting Sunday 8/9 as originally announced. As all New Yorkers can surely appreciate, the Mayor is focused on the response to this accident. His thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims."
Update, 7:20 p.m. : Divers continue to search as only two bodies and neither aircraft has been pulled out of the water. Ray Kelly told reporters that another helicopter pilot on the ground at the heliport for Liberty Tours saw the plane approaching the helicopter and tried to radio an alert to the pilots, but the warning wasn't heard or didn't happen in time.
Updated, 4:20 p.m. : Officials are now saying that all nine passengers are believed to be dead as divers continue to search for the remaining bodies in the Hudson River.
Updated, 3:30 p.m. : Two bodies have been recovered after a small plane collided into a helicopter over the Hudson, sending its passengers into the river. The accident took place around noon in the vicinity of 14th Street. Mayor Bloomberg just said, "This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission," and said the crash was "not survivable." The Liberty Tour helicopter had a pilot and five passengers—Italian tourists—while it's believed the small plane had three people (a pilot and two passengers, one of whom was a child) aboard—Bloomberg added, "This is not going to have a happy ending."
The NY Times reports, "Witnesses said the airplane, a single-engine Piper PA-32R-300 that had taken off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and was flying south along the river, appeared to lose control as it banked steeply to the left and struck the Liberty Harbor Sightseeing Tours helicopter not far off the shoreline in Hoboken, N.J."
One witness watched both aircrafts spiral down into the Hudson and told NY1, "Then it just disappeared.... You couldn't believe it. You couldn't see anything left in the water." The small plane was reportedly lost to radar after taking off from Teterboro Airport, according to WCBS 2.
Divers are in the Hudson River, looking for bodies and wreckage, but the Hudson's murky conditions are causing visibility issues—they can only see 1-3 feet in front of them. Mayor Bloomberg said that National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
We're hearing that the black box was recovered near Hoboken. And in 2007, a Liberty Travel helicopter crashed into the Hudson soon after takeoff; the chopper had been experiencing engine problems (no one was seriously hurt).
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This is terrible.
funny, my girlfriend and i were on the ferry leaving governors island yesterday when we were watching the tour helicopters take off and land on the east river helipads. we were talking about how dangerous they seemed and how they crash occasionally. we decided to never, ever take a helicopter tour.
24 hours later...
Early indications are that it had nothing to do with the helicopter. The plane lost control. It could just as easily have slammed into Hudson River Park or into a building (see the Cory Lidle incident). Everything crashes occasionally, not just helicopters. If you're that scared, better stay off the highways.
Terrible indeed. On a clear blue day too. Sounds like the plane was at fault.
While it's easy to assume the plane was at fault, helicopters are just as capabale speed-wise, and can cruise around the same speed as a Cessna.
LET'S BLAME SOMEONE! IMEDIATELY! AFTER ONLY THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE! BLAME SOMEONE!
OK, my bet is on the plane also...
maybe it was another flock of geese....fuckin hell can we stop jumping to conclusions.
Heck, let's blame Dan Schuler!
why is everything falling out of the sky and into the hudson lately? is this some sick aeronautical fad?
"Not expecting to find any survivors..."
So sad...
1010 reported seven rescued and one dead earlier
Awful.
oh. i guess they meant seven recovered. thanks a lot, 1010wins.
You never hear any good news involving Teterboro...
Your right. Teterboro, doesn't bring good news ever.
oh i was certain (and hoping) you would just cover this thusly: "Gotham Newsmap: A water rescue in the Hudson River by West 14 St in Manhattan."
I was under the impression that the FAA tightened up restrictions on single engine planes after the disastrous Cory Lidle incident.
But I guess not.
They added some restrictions to planes flying along the East River, not on the Hudson.
This is a tragedy, but you know what's worse? Nursing mothers on the subway. Now THAT'S a tragedy.
I was rowing on a whitehall gig when it happened straight across the river near Pier 45. We all heard a big pop. When we looked across, all you could see was white debris falling and both boats (there was another with us) made a collective decision to try and help out the best way we can (had there been any survivors, our boats are the easiest to get on to because they have so little distance off the water). The NYPD shooed us away and had we had marine radios to speak, it might have been easier. It sucks to hear everyone died though..
After this horrible wreck, I seriously wonder how long small aircraft can continue to use flightpaths around the island.
Considering how many planes and choppers you see flying up and down the river, it's pretty amazing that these things don't happen more often. I don't think we'll see any serious new restrictions put into place, nor should there be.
Fox News has some stunning photos of the actual collision, look like they may have been taken from a Circle Line boat...
http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/U.S./2009/08/08/midair-collision-hudson-river
What a crazy thing to happen. Very sad to say that we may never really know what happened.
after the Sully thing, howcome there aren't river cams? U know how many nationwide weather cams there are setup for anyone to see online?
There has to be better control of private pilots. They have to be kept away from population centers and cities. These crashes happen all to often.
Yes, I agree. Most of the pilots of these small planes in the NYC airspace are joyriding to see the sights anyway. The airspace in the immediate NYC vicinity should be off limits to small planes and limited to commercial jets and helicopters (ie, police, emergency, traffic, commercial). IMO the airspace around here is congested enough with just the helicopters and large commercial planes.
ITA. It's just a matter of time before one of these sightseeing helicopters or small planes crashes into a residential area and kills a lot of innocent people.
I also agree that there should be better control of private planes, but it would be wrong to ban them outright. The Hudson River is an important corridor for aircraft flying north/south. Keep in mind that private pilots must avoid the 3 major airports in our area so the Hudson River provides a vital north-south corridor between Newark & LGA/JFK.
There are plans to use GPS tracking, but unfortunately we're still several years away from implementation in this area. Until that happens, perhaps some limited restrictions could be implemented.
I think the answer is fixed wing and rotor aircraft should not be allowed to fly at the same altitudes. Planes fly much faster than helicopters, so their allowable tracks should be separated.
It's becoming that nothing is more ominous than a beautiful cloudless day in NYC...
I lived on the waterfront in Weehawken for 2 years. During that time, I would constantly hear low flying planes and helicopters all hours of the day. Some sounded so close, it felt like they would hit my building. I would look out the window and wonder how the huge air traffic mess never led to accidents or deaths. Then 2 years ago, I watched as a helicopter fell into the Hudson River before my very eyes. Now I hear about this tragedy and all I can say is: it's AMAZING this type of thing doesn't happen everyday. Someone needs to do something to control this chaos before larger numbers of innocent lives get snuffed out because helicopters and planes can't safely co-exist in the Hudson River corridor.
My prayers to the family & friends of Saturday's victims.