NYC East River chopper crash kills 1; 4 rescued |
Posted: October 4, 2011 |
A helicopter with five people aboard crashed into New York City's East River on Tuesday afternoon after taking off from a launch pad on the riverbank, killing one and seriously injuring at least two. The pilot and three others were pulled alive from the water by rescue crews shortly after the chopper went down. The body of a woman also on the Bell 206 helicopter, which was submerged in the murky water, was recovered later, police spokesman Paul Browne said. The private chopper went into the river off 34th Street in midtown Manhattan. It's unclear what happened, but witnesses said it was sputtering and appeared to be in some type of mechanical distress. A massive rescue effort had been under way with a dozen boats and divers in the cold, grey water before the woman's body was recovered. The conditions of those who were rescued weren't immediately available. The fire department said at least two people were taken to area hospitals in serious condition. Joy Garnett and her husband were on the dock waiting to take the East River ferry to Brooklyn when they heard the blades of a helicopter and saw it start to take off from the nearby helipad. She said she saw it do "a funny curlicue." "I thought, 'Is that some daredevil move?'" she said. "But it was obviously out of control. The body spun around at least two or three times, and then it went down." She said the chopper had lifted about 25 feet (7 meters) off the ground before it dropped into the water without much of a splash. It flipped over, and the blades were sticking out of the river. She said people on the dock started throwing life jackets and buoys. Two people came up out of the waves. "It sank fast," said Carlos Acevedo, of Puerto Rico, who was with his wife at a nearby park when they saw the helicopter go down. "In seconds. Like the water was sucking it in." The weather was clear but a little windy Tuesday. There were a few clouds at 3,500 feet (1,066 meters) above sea level, well above the typical flying altitude for helicopters. The chopper, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger, is one of the world's most popular helicopter models and was first flown in January 1966. They are light and highly maneuverable, making them popular with television stations and air taxi companies. On Aug. 8, 2009 a small plane collided with a helicopter over the Hudson River, on the other side of Manhattan, killing nine people, including five Italian tourists. A government safety panel found that an air traffic controller who was on a personal phone call had contributed to the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules for aircraft flying over New York City's rivers after that collision. Pilots must call out their positions on the radio and obey a 161 mph (259 kph) speed limit. Before the changes, such radio calls were optional. ___ Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Chris Hawley and Cristian Salazar contributed to this report.
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