A tour helicopter crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon, killing a family of five visiting from Spain and the pilot, Mayor Eric Adams said.
The chopper operated by New York Helicopter went down at 3:17 p.m., near Houston Street, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The passengers were two parents and three children. The victims were treated in New Jersey. Two of the victims died at a hospital, Tisch said.
Adams said the helicopter had taken off from the Downtown Skyport — formerly the Downtown Manhattan Heliport — just before 3 p.m. The incident prompted some lawmakers to call for an outright ban on non-essential helicopter flights over Manhattan.
Videos posted to social media showed the helicopter suffered a catastrophic failure and fell apart midair, with the rotors separating from the cabin as it plummeted into the water.
“Everyone heard a loud boom,” said Camran Mahmoodi, 21, who witnessed the crash while walking on the Manhattan waterfront.
Mahmoodi said FDNY divers quickly arrived at the scene of the crash closer to the New Jersey side of the river.
“I just heard this boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and then I looked up and it just went into the river,” said Amy Kiplok, another witness walking along the West Side Piers. “And then I thought, was that really a helicopter? Then I called 911.”
NYPD Harbor Unit and FDNY Marine boats were at the scene of the crash. At least 20 fire trucks were parked along the waterfront. An NYPD helicopter and police drones hovered overhead.
The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the crash, confirming all six people aboard were recovered and establishing a 1,000-foot safety zone near the Holland Tunnel ventilator. The agency said it was working with local and federal partners to investigate the cause.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was temporarily halting traffic around the site.
Tourist helicopter flights from the downtown heliport have been a source of noise complaints from local residents for decades. The City Council is considering legislation that would force helicopter tour operators to eventually shift to an electric, less noisy fleet.
Ken Coughlin, a board member of the advocacy group Stop the Chop, said New York City has “incredibly congested skies,” with more than 30,000 sightseeing flights from the Downtown heliport every year.
“This is a recipe for disaster,” Coughlin said. “This is just horrible, our hearts go out to the families of the victims.”
He said his group has raised concerns about the age of sightseeing choppers taking off from the Downtown Skyport and other heliports in the region, though it wasn’t clear what year the helicopter that crashed went into service.
“We’ve raised this as a concern for a long time … Because our understanding is that some of them have been around for 30 or 40 years,” he said.
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal called the incident “a foreseeable tragedy.”
“Today’s crash is a grim reminder of our worst fears about the dangers of tourist helicopter flights. Tourist choppers are free to operate without sufficient regulation to protect their passengers and New Yorkers on the ground,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement. “I will continue to champion a complete ban on non-essential helicopter flights over Manhattan and those originating from City-owned helipads to prevent crashes like this from ever occurring again.”
