Six dead in tourist helicopter crash in Hudson River 

MANHATTAN (CN) — A commercial tourist helicopter crashed into the New Jersey side of the Hudson River just outside of Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, killing all six on board, the New York Police Department said.

Three children, two adult passengers and one pilot were pulled from the water by first responders after the crash, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

“Sadly, all six victims have been pronounced deceased,” Adams said at a joint press conference with officials from the New York City Fire Department and the NYPD.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that four victims were pronounced dead on-scene while the other two were taken to area hospitals, where both succumbed to their injuries. Authorities started receiving calls at approximately 3:17 p.m. that a helicopter had gone down in the water near the New Jersey coastline off of River Drive in Hoboken, New Jersey, Tisch said.

The names of the victims are being withheld by officials until their families are notified, but numerous reports have indicated that the five passengers were a family of tourists from Spain. The rescue operation was a joint effort between the FDNY and the NYPD, officials said.

No water traffic is being allowed within a roughly two-mile radius from the crash, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The cause of the crash remains unclear; officials say it is currently under investigation. The touring helicopter crashed less than 20 minutes after it took off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, according to the NYPD.

Of the victims’ family members, Adams said that “we’re lifting them up in prayer.”

Speaking to CBS News on Thursday evening, the mayor reaffirmed the safety of New York City helicopter tours — a popular tourist activity for out-of-towners visiting Manhattan.

“Helicopters are safe, we’ve witnessed that throughout the years,” Adams said, “It’s part of the New York experience. This is a very unfortunate situation.”

One witness told Courthouse News on Thursday that the tail section of the helicopter “just broke off” before the aircraft “flipped over and went into the water.”

Dean Johnson, a sales manager at a Jersey City hotel, said he was outside with his boss when the crash happened just after 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

“We saw a bunch of firetrucks and police officers speeding through Jersey City,” Johnson told Courthouse News. “And then about 15 minutes later, I got the alerts on my phone saying that a helicopter had crashed.”

Johnson said that recent news of aircraft crashes and near-misses have made him more hesitant than usual to hop on a flight. Earlier on Thursday, two American Airlines jets clipped wings on a runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington. One of the planes was reportedly carrying at least six members of Congress.

“I was reading about that within five minutes of this all happening,” Johnson said. “It does worry me whenever I do fly, whenever I have friends that fly.”

Tisch said that the helicopter involved in Thursday’s crash belonged to New York Helicopters, a touring company with locations on either side of the Hudson River in Manhattan and New Jersey. The model was identified by rescuers as a Bell 206, a Canadian-built “world renowned” helicopter that is “considered the safest, most reliable aircraft in the world,” according to the website for New York Helicopters.

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