Helicopter crashes in New York City’s Hudson River; sources say 6 dead

NEW YORK (WPIX) – Multiple people are reportedly dead after a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River off Manhattan on Thursday.

Sources told Nexstar’s WPIX and the Associated Press that six people died in the crash. Two people briefed on the rescue efforts told The New York Times that three children and two adults had been pulled from the water, but their conditions were unknown.

Authorities have not yet provided any information regarding how many people may have been on board or their conditions.

Fire officials confirmed the crash on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River was first reported shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Videos posted to social media show showed the Bell 206 mostly submerged, upside down in the water. Police were seen nearby with police helicopters overhead.

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The fire department said it had units on scene performing rescue operations.

The rescue craft were near a site close to the Manhattan waterfront, near the end of a long maintenance pier for one of the ventilation towers for the Holland Tunnel.

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.

 
helicopters litterally have nut that keeps the whole thing from shaking itself apart. Seriously, Helicopters are super dangerous.
They literally call that "The Jesus Nut" because if it goes, you have just enough time to yell "Jesus Christ!!" Before you die.
 
As was previously mentioned, this was violent. Something went kaboom, I guess mechanically, like a gearbox seizure. In an absence of all other info I'd have guessed a collision first, but we'd probably know already if something else was involved.
If it was a drone we might not know yet unless someone caught footage of it. The amount of damage midair seems to lean towards collision. They don't normally come apart like that. Granted it's a New Yawk tourist outfit. So maintenance might be lacking.
 
If it was a drone we might not know yet unless someone caught footage of it. The amount of damage midair seems to lean towards collision. They don't normally come apart like that. Granted it's a New Yawk tourist outfit. So maintenance might be lacking.
seems to me that the shitty tourist company decided to cut costs to milk as much money from its customers as possible.
 
I was actually talking to a customer shortly after this happened. He was an old fella and I kinda probed what he though about all this shit happening lately. His opinion, all these manufacturers are building straight dog shit nowadays. I couldn't agree more.
 
Does Boeing make helicopters?
Yep. Ah-64 Apache, CH-47 Chinook and they partner with Bell on the V-22 Osprey. They also bid thr Raider-X and Defiant-X for the Army. The Defiant got beat by the Lockheed/Hughes V-280 Valiant and the Scout Helo program the Raider was part of was cancelled after seeing how horrifically vulnerable Russian scout helicopters were in Ukraine to... anything and everything. They are going with drones instead.
 
All the New Yawkahs just walking and not even speeding up or slowing down their pace. Never change, NYC.

Edit: I've watched that footage a few times and ... that chopper has no tail, unless my eyes are going bad (also a possibility). Did it literally break apart in mid-air? Apparently owned by NY Helicopters, which provides charters and tourist flights.

Possible this will be a prominent family (but they're from Spain so it won't be news here). EDIT2: No, they were tourists on the cheapest 15-minute flight. Just normies. Really sad stuff. Tens of thousands of these flights happen without incident every year.
I honestly don't think they could see it from their vantage point. They were much closer to it, and it was basically right above them, a block away, and behind a treeline (which they were walking in front of). NYC is loud, and it's possible they just wrote the sound off as something else.
 
I instantly thought of this cartoon when I saw this.View attachment 7204347
A lot of them also tend to be crazier in the air than fixed-wing pilots for the obvious reason that God may decide to kill them at any moment even if they don't fuck around.

There's that old-ish video boasting about how the European mind cannot comprehend the Hooters 500 and there's a couple Apache pilots doing a low-level, low-speed flyover around the track in synch with the cars below while barely above the ground. You'd never catch a fixed-winger tempting Fate quite like that.
 

Agustin Escobar, president and CEO of Siemens in Spain, his wife and their three children were killed in the fiery crash in which a tourist chopper plunged into the murky waters.

Gut-wrenching photos on New York Helicopter Tours website show the bundled up five family members smiling in front of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter and strapped inside the aircraft.

The loved ones just got into the Big Apple from Barcelona earlier in the day, law enforcement sources said.

Last known photos
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from the charter's web site
20250410_204001_New York Helicopter Tours The best views of NYC are here.png
 
Reading about the Ducks and their Crashes has made me leery of anything touristy, holy shit.
I don't understand why anyone trusted that piece of shit to begin with. It's got a roof (that can't just be cut open in case of emergency) and it goes in the water. What could possibly go wrong?
 
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