A helicopter chartered for a photo shoot plunged into the East River Sunday evening, killing all five of its passengers in a devastating crash that was caught on video.
The pilot escaped alive and emerged from the frigid water desperately yelling for help after the 11-minute flight.
Footage of the deadly incident, which was posted on social media before the deaths were confirmed, showed the copter progressively losing altitude until it slammed into the water, bounced and tilted over.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the frantic pilot called to an air traffic controller moments before the splash landing. “East River. Engine failure.”
Photog met victims of East River helicopter crash before flight
For a few seconds, the rotors sliced into the water until the helicopter went under with six people, including the pilot, still trapped inside.
Twitter footage captured the moment a helicopter crashed into the East River.
(JJ Magers / Twitter)
“There were six people on the helicopter,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. “The pilot freed himself. The other five did not. The police, fire divers entered the water and removed the other five.”
The FDNY responded within five minutes, the commissioner said.
“The pilot is OK,” Nigro said. “He went to the hospital to be checked out, but he was able to get out.”
Connecticut pilot identified as sole survivor of East River crash
Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the passengers had chartered the helicopter for a photo shoot.
Pilot and sole survivor Richard Vance, 33, is escorted by first responders after his helicopter crashed into the East River on Sunday.
(WPIX)
Officials said the copter sank in about 50 feet of water in the middle of the river, near E. 89th St. and Roosevelt Island. The current was moving at 4 mph.
“It took awhile for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly, as fast as they could,” Nigro said.
Nigro said the harnesses designed to be worn for safety may have actually hindered the passengers’ escape. First responders were not only operating in frigid water, but they were working against time inside a helicopter that by the time they arrived had turned upside down.
“The pilot freed himself, was taken by one of our fire boats ashore and was out on an ambulance,” Nigro added. “One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we’re told, is the five people besides the pilot were all tightly harnessed, so these harnesses had to be removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter, which was upside down at the time.”
A section of the helicopter that crashed in the East River being transported.
(Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News)
Officials said the chopper was owned by New Jersey-based Liberty Helicopter Tours.
Police sources identified the surviving pilot Monday morning as Rick Vance. He was treated at a local hospital and released.
The casualties of the crash are believed to be four men and one woman, police said. They were not identified.
The Kearny sightseeing operation was involved with a midair collision over the Hudson River in August 2009 that claimed the lives of six people on the helicopter, including the pilot. Three more people were killed on the single-engine aircraft it hit.
Police officers and workers from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner remove two bodies after the fatal helicopter crash.
(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
Investigators concluded that the helicopter was flying too high and the pilot of the Piper PA-32R was distracted by a Teterboro Airport dispatcher and failed to see the chopper, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.
In 2007, a helicopter with the same company crashed into the Hudson during a tour of the city. An off-duty EMT on board the aircraft helped the passengers escape.
Officials said it was too early to determine what caused Sunday’s crash.
Amateur video shows the commercial helicopter crashing into the water, its rotor still spinning, and then overturn.
Medics attend to a victim at the E. 34th St. ferry dock following a helicopter crash in the East River in Manhattan.
(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
“Just witnessed a helicopter crash into the East River … hope everyone’s ok,” wrote Twitter user @JJmagers, who posted the video online just after 7:15 p.m.
Brianna Jesme, 22, who witnessed the afternoon crash, said, “It sort of landed sideways and then it flipped over. There was a good solid minute that no one came out of the helicopter.”
She added, “We didn’t know if it was supposed to be happening. Once it went down, we realized that it wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The NYPD’s aviation and harbor unit rushed to the scene, as did the FDNY’s harbor unit, sending divers to search for the helicopter’s occupants.
Emergency vehicles involved in rescue of downed helicopter in the East River.
(Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
A privately operated tugboat managed to rescue the pilot, authorities said. Police and fire recovered the five passengers.
“It was completely submerged,” another eyewitness Celia Skvaril, 23, said. “We didn’t see the helicopter anymore and then a yellow raft popped up, and again we didn’t see or hear anyone until we saw a person on top of the raft screaming and yelling for help and waving.”
“It was a pretty hard hit and then it flipped over.”
Manhattan resident Tuan-Lung Wang saw the scene unfold from his window.
“Some unexpected scene to see when you have a east river view in your room,” Wang tweeted. “20 min ago, my wife and I were chilling in our room enjoying the river view. Then we saw a flying object gradually landing on water. We thought it’s a helicopter, but we were not sure. So we called 911.”
With Rikki Reyna
Send a Letter to the Editor Join the Conversation: facebook Tweet