Five people were killed when a helicopter crashed into the East River of New York City on Sunday evening, police say.
Divers worked desperately to pull the five passengers from the helicopter but two of them died at the scene while the other three died in hospital.
The pilot managed to free himself and was rescued by a passing tugboat.
The helicopter, which had been chartered for a photo shoot, crashed near Roosevelt Island.
Police commissioner James O'Neill told reporters it had been privately leased by a group of photographers.
Video posted on social media showed a red helicopter appearing to make a semi-controlled descent at around 19:00 (23:00 GMT) before landing with some force in the water. It then began to tip over, its rotors still spinning and slicing into the water.
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Sad, because his controlled crash was well executed. I guess they just could not make it out.
ReplyDeleteEUROCOPTER -again why do we import this euro crap when we have the best helicopters in the world built here in the USA? Sure there weren't any Clinton Foundation donors on board?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound like the pilot had too much concern for his passengers. I've seen no reports of him trying to rescue them. He only took care of himself, and let his passengers go down, alive and hanging upside down in the water, in the helicopter he was captain of. The pilot fastened his passengers in those harnesses, and nobody knew better how to release them. If he had released them, they would have swum out just like he did. They didn't die on impact, they drowned because they couldn't get out of the harnesses. Could have been a hero like the jet pilot that landed in the river, but the helicopter pilot was only concerned with saving himself. I hope the lawsuits from this accident puts that helicopter tour company out of business. This is their third wreck that has killed passengers.
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