Six dead as helicopter crashes into NY's Hudson River

The New York Fire Department said it received a report of the crash at 3.17pm on Thursday. All six people aboard were killed, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorised to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter "falling apart" in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.

Video posted to social media showed parts of the chopper splashing into the water, and the overturned aircraft was submerged, with rescue boats circling it.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.

The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the river. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on streets near the scene with their lights flashing.

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with both planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.

Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering "open door" flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.

A medical transport plane that killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighbourhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington DC — the deadliest US air disaster in a generation.

The crashes and other close calls have left some people worried about the safety of flying.