A Deadly Helicopter Crash within the Hudson River

Good morning. It’s Friday. We’ll get particulars on the crash of a sightseeing helicopter within the Hudson River. We’ll additionally discover out about new “high quality of life” groups that the Police Division plans to deploy to combat minor crimes.

Hundreds of sightseeing flights take off from the heliports in and round New York Metropolis yearly. The passengers oooh and ahhh as they cruise over landmarks just like the Statue of Liberty. They select the Empire State Constructing, One World Commerce Middle and the Brooklyn Bridge. They pay round $400 an individual for as a lot as 25 minutes within the sky.

It was one such flight that went down on Thursday, at the very least the third deadly incident involving a sightseeing helicopter within the metropolis within the final 15 years. Aboard the plane, a Bell 206, had been Augustín Escobar, the president of the Spanish department of the know-how firm Siemens, and his spouse and their three kids, two officers mentioned. The household was killed, as was the pilot, who was not recognized.

The helicopter took off from Decrease Manhattan and flew as excessive as 1,200 toes earlier than dropping to about 600 toes, in keeping with FlightAware, a flight-tracking database. Its velocity was 102 miles an hour simply earlier than the drop in altitude.

On the bottom, witnesses described the flight’s ultimate moments. Some mentioned they heard a loud noise and noticed the helicopter drop into the river with out its rotor. Peter Park, who works a few block from the Hudson in Jersey Metropolis, mentioned he noticed black smoke trailing from an plane — and the unattached rotors falling into the water.