Helicopter crashes into NYC's Hudson River after it ‘split in half’ mid flight
A helicopter has plunged into the Hudson River in New York. Around 3:15pm Eastern Time today (April 10), the aircraft crashed down, with several rescue vessels seen circling near Jersey City. Officials have not yet released information about passenger count or casualties.
One witness described the incident: "I heard what resembled a sonic boom, looked up and actually saw the helicopter breaking apart, with the rotor separating and flying through the air at high speed before the craft plummeted straight into the water."
The witness added, "I've never witnessed anything similar in my life."
Social media footage displayed the helicopter mostly submerged and flipped upside down in the water. Fire department personnel were conducting rescue operations at the scene, with multiple rescue boats surrounding the aircraft. The emergency teams gathered near the Manhattan waterfront, adjacent to a maintenance pier for one of the Holland Tunnel ventilation towers. Emergency vehicles lined nearby streets with activated warning lights.
Manhattan's airspace regularly buzzes with aircraft, including private recreational vehicles, commercial flights, and tourist transports. The borough features several heliports that transport business executives and others throughout the metropolitan region.
Several accidents have occurred over the years, including a 2009 collision between an airplane and a tourist helicopter above the Hudson River that killed nine people, and a 2018 East River crash of a charter helicopter offering "open door" experiences that resulted in five fatalities.
Earlier this year, an American Airlines-owned aircraft struck a military helicopter in Washington DC on January 29, becoming the deadliest U.S. aviation accident since 2001, with all 67 people involved perishing.
Two days after the Washington disaster, a medical aircraft crashed in Philadelphia, killing all six occupants. Six days later on February 6, a plane carrying ten people vanished over Alaska, with wreckage later found confirming no survivors.
On February 10 in Arizona, a private aircraft owned by Vince Neil collided with another plane at Scottsdale Airport while arriving from Austin, Texas. Neil was not aboard. One week later on February 17, all 80 passengers safely evacuated a Delta Air Lines flight that crashed and overturned in Toronto.
