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Midair Collision Between Small Airplane and Tourist Helicopter; Mayor Bloomberg Holds Press Conference About Crash; Witnesses Recount What Happened
Aired August 08, 2009 - 15:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
A crowded busy area for aircraft there, over the Hudson River in your Hoboken, New Jersey, becomes a place of a tragic accident, today. A midair collision between a small aircraft with three people onboard that had taken off from the Teterboro, New Jersey airport, three people including a child, colliding with a tourist helicopter that operates out of midtown Manhattan.
Five tourists from Italy onboard, along with the pilot, all nine have since died. We heard from the mayor of New York, just about an hour ago talking about this being now a recovery mission, no longer a rescue mission. Now emergency crews there in the Hudson River are trying to recover the wreckage and more bodies. Already two bodies have been recovered.
We wanted to reach out to a private pilot in the area who is used to flying in that very busy air space. His name is Daniel Rose, he's on the line with us, now.
So Daniel, we heard the mayor earlier say, yes, indeed, and acknowledged, this is a busy, dangerous airport, airstrip area, traffic area, but he says most of the pilots in this area are very experienced, very knowledgeable of that. Give me an idea of what it was like for you flying there.
DANIEL ROSE, PRIVATE PILOT: Well, it absolutely is a very congested area, but if everybody does what they're supposed to do, it can be navigated safely. There's no air traffic control over that area, there's no radar control, so everybody, each pilot is responsible for announcing where he or she is on the Hudson River and watching out for other planes coming up or down or most importantly, entering from below.
So, a helicopter, for instance, when they leave out of the heliport on the west side of Manhattan, have to fly up and enter into this flow of traffic and it's a very challenging and potentially dangerous thing do, to coordinate that, so you enter the flow of traffic safely and they need to be able to do that.
WHITFIELD: Did I hear this information earlier that the higher speed, the aircraft with the higher speed would have to usually have to yield to the other aircraft and that would mean this smaller aircraft, the smaller plane that would have taken off from the Teterboro, New Jersey airport? ROSE: Well, it's really more of a -- a more maneuverable plane having to yield to a less maneuverable plane. But in this case, you know, what's really important is establishing on the radio, letting everybody know where you are and coordinating where you are so that the other pilot knows just what you're doing and how you're going to enter that air space.
So it's important for, for instance, the helicopter pilot to be able to clear a space before they come up and enter. Certainly if they're both traveling in the same direction, the faster aircraft should be avoiding the slower aircraft.
WHITFIELD: So when you first heard of this accident earlier today, knowing that you have you traveled this route, this very busy air space before, what was your initial reaction?
ROSE: Well, I can't say that I was too surprised. It's tragic, it's a terrible situation, but the other part of what I do, I'm not only a pilot, but I'm a lawyer and we specialize in aviation litigation and this is exactly the type of things that we deal with. So, not only do I actively fly and am aware of what goes on on the Hudson corridor, and elsewhere, but I kind of look at it from a point of view of safety and, you know, this is a potential risk.
What do you need to do to make sure it's conducted this safely? And this is definitely an area that requires everybody to know what they're doing and be on top of their game because there's no room for mistakes.
WHITFIELD: You know, Mayor Bloomberg reiterated that this is the second accident to happen in such a short span there on the Hudson River, although this one had a tragic ending. He called this being the largest accident resulting in death in modern day and I'm also referring to that flight 587, that miracle on the Hudson where everybody walked away unharmed, was able to land on that Hudson River. This really is a strange set of events to be taking place in such close proximity of the crash site.
ROSE: Yes. I mean a lot of these things can be lumped in as coincidence, could you probably throw in the Corey Lidle accident too that happened on the other side of the East River. But I think when you start dissecting it from a safety point of view, you realize these are very different circumstances and a mid-air collision, you know, did happen here. It can happen in a lot of different places, but it's very different from what happened to U.S. Air flight.
WHITFIELD: I realized you're an experienced pilot, you're familiar with flying in this congested travel space, but does this accident in any way make you a little bit more wary the next time that you're piloting an aircraft in this area?
ROSE: Sure. I think any pilot needs to take away, if nothing else, from any other accident that they learn about, you know, let me learn as much as I can about what went wrong so that it doesn't happen to me or anybody else and the goal has to be to make things safer, but it can be done safely. And we just have to learn a little bit more about exactly what happened here and we'll learn some lessons on how to make sure this doesn't happen again.
WHITFIELD: Pilot Daniel Rose, also aviation lawyer, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate that. Again, the investigation phase now into high gear there after a mid-air collision between a tourist helicopter and a small aircraft. In all, nine people died. Two bodies have been recovered. Now the recovery mission of the other seven bodies continues to take place in there in the Hudson River. Much more straight ahead right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. We continue do watch now the investigative phase of a mid-air collision taking place over the Hudson River between Hoboken, New Jersey and lower Manhattan. An aircraft, a small aircraft with three people on board, including a child, which had recently taken off from the Teterboro, New Jersey, Airport.
According to the mayor of New York, he says eyewitnesses say that aircraft may have crashed into the rear end of a helicopter, a tourist helicopter with five Italian tourists on board as well as the pilot. All nine have died. The recovery of two bodies have taken place, and now the recovery phase continues there in the Hudson River. They are trying to figure out exactly what took place over what is typically a very busy and congested air space.
Susan Candiotti is joining us now by way of broadband. You had a chance to hear the mayor, he said this is a very tragic event, very sad and the city is trying to offer as many comforts as they can to the visitors from Italy whose family members died in this collision.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They're getting counseling as we speak. It is a tragedy and in fact as Mayor Bloomberg said, this did not appear to be a survivable accident at all. And I think he said that was pretty clear from the start, that it wasn't so much a rescue operation as a recovery operation. Although that official designation came a few hours into what's happening out on the river behind me.
Let's take a look over there to she you exactly what is happening now. Well, it is a beautiful day outside here, below the water, the conditions are not so good. You've got several boats out there and four teams of divers who are working under terrible conditions. They said that below water you can only see in front of you about two feet. The depth of the water here in the Hudson River, 30 feet. Again those divers plan to be working around the clock to see what they can find at this point.
It looks like there is some wreckage, they think might belong to the helicopter at this point. They're not sure, but they don't think that they have found the plane's wreckage as yet. It's a difficult operation. Again, as we said because of how murky the water is. We asked a little bit more about those bodies that have been recovered, only two bodies have been recovered so far. One, Mayor Bloomberg said, was floating on the water, the other below the water. So this is going to be a very long and difficult operation as the day and obviously the evening goes on.
Fredricka, we're also learning some additional information from the mayor about what happened in the moments before the accident occurred. Information also coming from police Commissioner Ray Kelly. As we understand it, the sight seeing helicopter took off again this is just before noon perpendicular over the water from its helipad. These sight seeing helicopters frequently take off across the Hudson and then take people around for a tour of Manhattan as well as the Statue of Liberty.
About that same time, this small plane took off from the private airport Teterboro Airport. And appeared to be coming down from the northwest when some witnesses, and this is only preliminary information, said that it appeared as though the plane went into the back of the helicopter. Now, according to police Commissioner Ray Kelly, they also had information from an off-duty New York City police pilot who was taking off at the same time in the air, working for the very same sightseeing company. And he saw what happened. Apparently did not have time to call for help. And before you knew it, the mid- air collision had occurred. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: Tragic set of events. Thanks so much. Susan Candiotti, appreciate that.
There were lots of eyewitnesses to what took place just after noontime today over the Hudson River. This is some of what they saw.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: What we can tell is that the plane left from Teterboro, the helicopter had just taken off from west 30th street. There were a number of eyewitnesses who saw the crash. It would appear that the airplane ran into the back side of the helicopter. But keep in mind with all of these things, number one until National Transportation Safety Board makes the determination, nothing is a fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Again, you're looking at live pictures right now of the Hudson River. Earlier, we talked to a number of people who either said they saw the collision or heard it. But certainly saw the debris, then plunging into the Hudson River.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASMINE PAN, CRASH WITNESS: The only thing I saw was a black helicopter went down. We were all watching it, it was like in a movie. And it start, it was turning and then the - the head went down first. And then about three or four seconds later, I thought it was a wing of the helicopter, but there's no wing for helicopters. Probably the rotor blade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did it look like going down?
PAN: So if this is the head, I think it went down like this. So it was quick, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see - what did you guys do next offer as you saw this?
PAN: We all - three of our girls, we all called 911 and I think it was probably busy and it says leave a message. It was a little bit funny, but very soon in about a minute. I just see like all the other helicopters and then people come for the rescue. So it was very quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see a plane?
PAN: No, I did not see a plane. I didn't know there was a crash. I just saw probably a malfunction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see them pulling people out of the water?
PAN: I see a lot of people come and start to try to rescue, and then lots of boats start to drive towards the helicopter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see people in the water? Were there people swimming that need rescued?
PAN: I did not see that. I did not see any struggle or anything, but I see a lot of people try to come and help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And where were you?
PAN: Chelsea Pier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were in - where were you exactly when you saw it?
PAN: I was on level D or C. I think level D.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of where?
PAN: Chelsea Pier Golf Club.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me a little bit more about the rescue effort, what did you see, were you both heading to the scene, tell me what you saw?
PAN: I saw a lot of helicopters driven -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boats?
PAN: And boats driving towards the scene and try to help
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How high in the air was the helicopter when it was going straight down?
PAN: I don't think I saw the whole thing. When I saw it, it took about, I saw about six seconds of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, and it was straight nose down.
PAN: I think it was nose down, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it turning?
PAN: Yes, I think it was turning, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your reaction when you saw it, you obviously have never seen anything like this.
PAN: Yes, I was very shocked. I think I was screaming for a few seconds, then two of us, we started calling 911. So probably a lot of people saw it, that's why the line was busy. So then we saw the rescue boats, rescue helicopter, just went after like a minute. It was that quick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But no one swimming.
PAN: I did not see it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see any plane?
PAN: I did not see any planes. I saw some smoke like afterward. I didn't see any planes.
RICH COLIN, CRASH WITNESS: Over in this area, by this park over here, halfway out, basically where that barge boat out over there, there was a small plane like a Cessna, cutting back towards the New jersey side and a helicopter heading southbound about 1,100, 1,200 feet, the plane rolled in the helicopter, hit the side of it. The helicopter went straight down the water. There was a poof of smoke like a bang. And the plane went further down hit the water by the W Hotel and the plane came down in a couple of pieces. Pretty bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your thought when you saw it?
COLIN: Tragic, that is, you know - the fact that it happened here. You look up and you see all the planes going around here, it's kind of hectic. So I'm surprised, unfortunately, you know, this thing happened. But you know, the fact that it does happen, it doesn't happen more often it's just kind of crazy.
I've seen them initially they had been concentrating on the airplane wreckage over here. The helicopter went straight down, initial nobody went over there. I think that's what they're doing over here, right now with the barge. But I know initially people were talking about two airplanes or one airplane going down, but you know, unfortunately everybody was concentrating on the debris over here. I don't know what the status of these other people is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Tragedy over the Hudson River, just after noontime today, a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a small plane, the end result, nine people have died in that mid-air collision. Two bodies have actually been recovered. You heard the account from so many eyewitnesses on this beautiful day, so many people were out and about. And either hurt or saw the collision taking place and the rescue mission that kicked into high gear immediately but Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, just a about an hour ago said this is no longer a rescue mission but instead a recovery mission. But visibility is very poor in the Hudson River there at the depths of 30 feet or so. Visibility of two feet in the water. Still, they continue to look for the wreckage and try to recover the other seven bodies.
Josh Levs also here, joining me. We've heard from eyewitness accounts in so many different ways. Pretty extraordinary moment to moment accounts of what transpired today.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm about to give you another one, Fred.
We've been getting so much information from people via the web. We got Twitter, Facebook and CNN iReports coming in like crazy. Let's zoom in for a second. We're seeing a lot of these images of the police boats. And everyone who is out there. Everyone sending in these pictures, telling us that the police response, the authority response to this was immediate. The people moved very, very quickly. And there was really a lot of training that they could see had been done because boom, people were out there.
Take a look, I'm going to move through some of the other pictures we've got here. I want you to see this post I received from Keith Nye via Facebook. Look at this, he writes I was playing soccer in Sinatra Park when the crash happened right overhead. Incredibly large bang. Many thought it was a bomb.
He goes on to say, he says first reaction was the helicopter would fall on land and people were yelling at others to get way. The helicopter was split in two. He goes on to explain that and I want people to understand where we're talking act. This is where he was. He was at the Sinatra Park right here. You got the Hudson and you got Sinatra Park on the west side of it right there. We've been hearing from a lot of people on that side, Fred, sending us their pictures, sending us videos, sending us stories.
And we definitely want to hear from you. Let me show you how you can get in touch with us. You've got my twitter page, twitter.com/joshlevscnn. It's one of the top topics right now. Hudson River. A lot of people tweeting about that. Here it is right there. You can see how to reach me right up here. Josh Levs CNN in my Facebook as you were just seeing. Josh Levs CNN, I tell you, we are getting so many of these pictures, especially via iReport. It has really helped us tell the story.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
LEVS: If you go to cnn.com right now, look at all of our latest details are big picture, the main page of CNN.com is an iReport which puts us on the scene and tells us the eyewitness accounts of what's been going down. WHITFIELD: some of our first images have come by way of OUR viewers or iReporters, people who were there, WHO saw it as it happened and conveyed it to us right away.
LEVS: And then the authorities later on will match what we are already hearing from our eyewitness accounts. These people have been not only very quick with the information but accurate with their descriptions of what they have been seeing so far matched exactly what the authorities say happened.
WHITFIELD: That's so right. All right. Thanks so much, Josh Levs, appreciate that.
Let's check in with our Jacqui Jeras because we are talking about, it is still an active scene there in the Hudson River. It is a recovery mission. You even heard it from the mayor who said, it's still very dangerous. Yes, it's a beautiful day, but we're talking about the Hudson River, depths of 30 feet, visibility very poor and they still need to locate other bodies as well as the wreckage. And you're talking about pretty warm waters and currents.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, the current is kind of swift. The water temperature about 76 degrees. So that's actually pretty warm. So that's not too bad in terms of the conditions. We're going to zoom in here. And kind of give you a better idea, we want to start it out why for those of you who don't know the New York City and the New Jersey area very well.
So here you can see this is Manhattan island. This is New Jersey over here. This is the Hoboken area that we're talking about. This is the Holland Tunnel right here to put it in perspective, and this is just north of that area. And I was looking on the internet, obviously great resource to try and find more information. And I saw some video on there that Don Lemon had pulled up that shows you how murky those waters are.
We're trying to get permission to use that video for you. So watch for that in the upcoming hours. But it just shows you how murky the water is. And you can't see very far in front of you. Not to mention, you know, the river bottoms are pretty much made of silt. And so if you take your hand and it went like this on the river bottom, all this dust and all of this silt will just kind of poof on up and it would make the visibility even worse. So you know, you've got extra traffic in that river, you got all the debris which has gone in there as well, not to mention the current. So that's really shaking things up as well, and it's going to take a while for that to settle a little bit. So maybe visibility can get a little bit better in the hours to come but certainly not ideal at this time.
So let's go ahead and zoom in a little bit more and show you the area that we're talking about. 14th street, over here, in Manhattan in New York. And so some of that wreckage was found on the other side of the river over here in the New Jersey side. So this is one of the areas that they're searching. So still some very dangerous conditions. Now weather wise, it really couldn't be better. At the time of the crash, we did have a little bit of scattered cloudiness but nothing to limit visibility. Visibility was ten miles so that's as good as it gets. We talk about those VFR rules or visual flight rules which are in play, you've got to have great clear conditions and be able to see that ten-plus miles in order to not have to talk to the controllers if you're one of those pilots.
So conditions were really, really good. Temperatures were in the 70s at the time. We're pushing into the 80s as we speak. And skies are clear. So weather wise, in terms of also helping with the recovery effort looks great as well and tomorrow looks fine, too. Maybe some thunderstorms coming in late tomorrow. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. Appreciate that. We continue to watch the developments there over the Hudson river, now a recovery mission, trying to find the wreckage and seven other bodies. In all, nine people died from this mid-air collision between a tourist helicopter, five Italians and a pilot on board as well as a small aircraft with three people on board including a child.
We understand that the helicopter had taken off from a midtown area, the heliport of that business, Liberty Tours, and shortly after takeoff, somehow this small aircraft which had recently taken off from the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey according to the mayor, eyewitness accounts say that small aircraft careened into the rear of that helicopter and it simply spiraled down. This was an accident, according to the mayor, that simply was not survivable.
We'll have much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A tragic mid-air collision over the Hudson River taking place about four and a half hours ago. Well, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said just about an hour or so ago this simply was an accident that was just not survivable.
This is his press conference in its entirety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: I'm sad to report that about 12:00 this afternoon, there was an accident which we do not believe was survivable between an airplane and a helicopter. The helicopter was a sightseeing helicopter, an A-3 star 50 made by Eurocopters and we think the airplane was a Piper Saratoga. The airplane we think took off from Teterboro and had on board a pilot and two passengers, one a child, we do not have the names and/or ages or where they come from.
And on the helicopter, there were five Italian tourists and a pilot. We have at this point found two bodies. We're not sure where one of them came from, the other one we're reasonably sure came from the helicopter. We found some wreckage, we believe that it is the helicopter but the visibility is about two feet, the depth of 30 feet on the Jersey side of the river opposite roughly 14th street where the wreckage was located. We've not found the second piece of wreckage. We're assuming we have the helicopter, but I cannot for sure say that in which case we're looking for the airplane or vice versa. With me today is our police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Calvin Drayton, first deputy commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, Joe Esposito, chief of the Department of the NYPD, Ronny Spadafora, deputy assistant chief of the FDNY, John Peruggia, chief of EMS and Scott Stringer, our borough president has joined us and we also have representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board, which will do the complete investigation.
We've also have the Coast Guard on board an we have representatives from the Port Authority, the Harbor police, the New York state police. Over on Jersey side, we've been working with the Jersey State Police and local police forces there. What we can tell is that the plane left from Teterboro, the helicopter had just taken off from west 30th street. There were a number of eyewitnesses who saw the crash. It would appear that the airplane ran into the back side of the helicopter, but keep in mind with all of these things, number one, until National Transportation Safety Board makes the determination, nothing is a fact.
And it can take them many weeks or even years to determine what goes on. This probably won't be that big an investigation. But they will do a complete investigation before they announce their conclusions as to what happened and whether there are any steps that should be taken to improve safety and to prevent similar tragedies such as this. The police department has sent some of their community affairs unit and the mayors' office community affairs, both are with the families of the Italian tourists who had taken off from 30th street and are providing counseling.
I gathered that they don't speak English so we have some Italian speakers there and we have professionals who sadly all too often have to learn how to deal with tragedy and help the families get through this difficult period. I might point out that as you would expect the Red Cross is here providing the kind of assistance that we need, both the fire department and the PD have boats and divers and everything is being done, but I think it's fair to say that this has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission. And that probably was what we could have started out with the instant it happened.
There is some evidence from eye witnesses that one of the wings of the airplane was severed or separated, probably severed by the rotors of the helicopter, but we won't know as I said until the NTSB does their investigation. We will over the next hours remove the bodies from whether it's the helicopter or the airplane that we found, but at this point our paramount focus is on making sure that our divers are safe. We don't want them to make this tragedy any worse than it's already been and we will continue looking for the other aircraft whichever one it is.
There's not a lot else to say. I'd be happy to take some question, but nobody really knows any more than what I've just said and so if you want to ask about more, you're going to get the answer, that same answer. Sir? QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, can you as a pilot describe this air space and how aircraft indeed have to navigate?
BLOOMBERG: There is a corridor here where aircraft can fly uncontrolled by air traffic control. There is a common frequency used on the Hudson River. There's a separate one for the East River. Pilots that fly in this area all the time pretty much always use those frequencies to announce where they are and to listen to find out where other people are.
And when they're going by 34th Street, even on the East Side or 30th street on the West Side or Wall Street, the other place helicopters can land, helicopter pilots pretty much always describe where they are, what altitude and which direction they're going to ensure separation. That's probably not anywhere near as true with airplanes that fly through the area, not very frequently. There's no requirement that they do that, although common sense says and the maps do show what those frequencies are. Sir?
QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, is there any indication that the plane was flying too low or why it would be flying so low?
BLOOMBERG: We don't know what altitude, the corridor is probably is 1,000 feet or below. And obviously for example, helicopters can go all the way down right to the water because they have to land on the pier. So there's a maximum altitude restriction.
And minimums tends to be just staying away from the sides, from buildings, but nobody really focuses on that. The reason for the maximum altitude is you want to make sure that these airplanes stay away from commercial aircraft, which fly higher than that and would never be cleared lower than this.
Typically a commercial airplane going into La Guardia, going up the river would be cleared to go at 5,000 feet, 1,000 feet being the maximum for these.
Yes, Miss?
QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, can you describe in a little bit more detail about how the bodies were recovered, so the two bodies that have been recovered, how would that...
BLOOMBERG: We don't -- I cannot do that. One was, we believe, floating free and they found the other one, the divers have recovered, but as you might imagine, the divers are more worried about doing their job and making sure that each other is safe rather than giving us a blow by blow.
There are some bodies in the wreckage that we found in the aircraft, whether that's an airplane or a helicopter. We believe it's the helicopter, but we're not 100 percent sure, but they're studying now how to get them out safely and eventually the wreckage will be picked up.
First thing we're trying to do is get the bodies out obviously with the sensibilities of the families. And our prayers have to go out to them. It's a tragedy and other than Flight 587, this is, as far as I know, the largest accident resulting in death in the New York area in modern day.
Yes, Miss?
QUESTION: Is there any indication that the (OFF-MIKE)?
BLOOMBERG: There's no indication that anybody had any problems whatsoever. One of the pilots on the -- sitting on the deck at the West 30th Street said he saw the airplane and he grabbed his microphone and tried to tell the pilot of the helicopter that got hit.
But whether the pilot ever heard it, whether he was on the right frequency, you know, it could have just been an optical illusion that it was close, too, in this case, it turned out it was not an optical illusion.
It is a crowded, busy area and generally pilots that fly in this area are well-trained and they certainly have plenty of practice flying in that. It's -- you know, when the roads are crowded and going fast, you really want to pay attention and pilots here typically do.
What exactly happened, I cannot -- I'm not going to speculate and until the NTSB issues their report, you're not going to know.
Yes, sir.
QUESTION: How big is the debris field and what is the...
BLOOMBERG: It's all -- it's underwater, they can see two or three feet maximum. They can't tell anything.
QUESTION: The debris field (OFF-MIKE)...
BLOOMBERG: We have no idea where both went down exactly or where the current might have taken them. We have found one piece of wreckage, whether they have looked two or three feet in either direction from that, I don't know, they are -- this is a dangerous area when the currents are running.
It's 30 feet under the water and the visibility is terrible and their first instructions are, do not compound this tragedy, recovery is certainly not worth jeopardizing people's lives. Rescue maybe, but not recovery.
Sir.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)?
BLOOMBERG: The helicopter had taken off from West 30th Street Heliport, went directly perpendicular out over the river which is their practice to make sure they see any traffic going north or south on the river. That's confirmed by the other pilot from the -- that was sitting on the heliport on 30th Street. He says the plane was coming from -- a little bit from the northwest, which would be from the Teterboro Airport area where we do know that this plane had taken off from. And so that's consistent. Whether that plane was in the process of banking and turning south to go down towards the Statue of Liberty, we just don't know.
They would not be allowed and probably would have known from the maps that they could not go over Manhattan, but there is this corridor down over the river.
So, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take one more question.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... the plane going south essentially, and helicopter is going towards New Jersey?
BLOOMBERG: The helicopter had already turned going south when the plane came, but it first came out, and it turned south, and it was climbing and probably between 500 and 1,000 feet. They'll try to establish that later on.
We'll take the last question or we'll take two.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)?
BLOOMBERG: There's normally -- there's no requirement that they communicate at all. And it is not positively controlled air space. There is a common frequency which you can voluntarily use to announce where you are, where you're going, listen to other pilots doing the same thing.
As far as we know, helicopter pilots almost always do this and we assume the pilot did that, that took off, if he time to do it, but he may have taken off and not bothered yet until he got established. We don't know that the airplane was listening on that frequency or said anything.
We'll take the last question, sir.
QUESTION: Yes. Mr. Mayor, how challenging do you know this air space to be to fly? And what would you say if there were calls that there were after the East Side incident for more restrictions over the Hudson River?
BLOOMBERG: Well, that's up to the FAA to determine. It may be one of those things that no amount of restriction other than preventing aircraft from coming into the area could have prevented. And that's not something anybody wants either. The city has interests, we have commercial interests in making sure that we're accessible and transportation can come in and go.
We have a number of airports close by, there's Caldwell, there's Newark, there's Teterboro, there's -- on the other side of the river, you've got La Guardia and Kennedy and a little further out, Republic, just to the north there's Westchester.
It is a busy area, as any big city would be. And there's traffic coming in and out all the time. For commercial aircraft, there is an awful lot of positive control, and I will say my experience with the FAA controllers in this area is they're the most professional I've ever had the privilege of working with.
They handle an enormous amount of traffic and really do know their stuff, but there are areas that are not positive controlled. The FAA can't control every place and this could have happened over a cornfield as well as over the East River. I think it's really any place you see a lot of traffic together that's not positively controlled, you have to be careful.
So I -- and that's not for me to prejudge whether anybody did anything right or wrong. The only definitive answers to your questions will come from the National Transportation Safety Board.
That's why air transportation is so safe, because they don't jump to conclusions. They very carefully work to establish with a lot of investigation what exactly went on. And they will do every kind of test and every kind of analysis you can conceive of. And when they're ready to issue their report, they will.
So let me just finish by saying it is a great tragedy. I think all the people of New York and the New York region have their prayers with the families and the deceased. I think you saw a stellar example of the kind of cooperation, the two big agencies, P.D., and FDNY, but also Port Authority of New Jersey and other New York -- New York State, and volunteer organizations all working together.
Sadly there's not a lot of rescue to do here. It's all recovery from this point on. And later on, we'll make sure that the press is informed of when their bodies are recovered, when we're able to release identification or tell you when the aircraft -- both aircraft wreckage will be recovered from the river.
But I think any speculation after this is just not based on any fact and I would urge you to wait until the professionals do what they're supposed to do. If you look at other cases, the first reports tend not to be terribly accurate and you saw that in a number of big airplane crashes -- commercial airplane crashes recently. I don't want that to happen here.
We're doing everything we can. We responded, I think, in exactly the ways our planning in the Office of Emergency Management, pulling everybody together and all of the training that the police department, the fire department, the other agencies do together. They responded quickly.
And if it was possible, if anybody had survived, we would have been there. Sadly, it appears to us at this point that this was probably not survivable from virtually the instant the accident or certainly a few seconds later when both aircraft went into the water.
So I'm sorry to have to report to the public another tragedy. This is not going to have a happy ending like when the Airbus went down in the river where everybody survived. In this case, we believe that nobody has.
Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: That was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, roughly an hour-and-a-half ago during a press conference there. Nine people on board two aircraft that collided. The two aircraft collided shortly after taking off at separate locations, but as you heard from the mayor there, this was an accident, in his words, that simply was not survivable.
We've got your iReports coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Now the recovery phase after a mid-air collision took place over the Hudson River. You're looking at the recovery mission under way on both those screens there. A helicopter as well as a small plane, nine people in all, on board those two aircraft collided just roughly after noontime and just about an hour or so ago.
The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, came out to say that this was simply not a survivable crash. They have recovered two bodies but the recovery mission is still under way to locate the other seven bodies. They have located the wreckage of one of the aircraft, presumably the helicopter, he says. They continue to search for the wreckage of that small airplane.
This is what an eyewitness by the name of Colin Rich said he saw shortly after noontime earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLIN RICH, CRASH WITNESS: Over in this area by this park over here, halfway out, basically where that barge boat is out over there, there was a plane -- small plane like a Cessna cutting back towards the Jersey side, the helicopter heading southbound about 1,100, 1,200 feet.
The plane rolled into the helicopter, hit the side of it, the helicopter went straight down in the water, there was like a poof of smoke and like a bang. And the plane went further down, hit the water by the W Hotel, and came out in couple of pieces. So pretty bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your thought when you saw it?
RICH: Tragic, bad. Just, you know, the fact that it happened here, but I mean, you look up and you see all the planes going around here, and it's, you know, kind of hectic, so, you know, I'm surprised -- you know, unfortunately, this thing happens, but, you know, the fact that it does happen -- it doesn't happen more often it just kind of crazy. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you happen to be watching it?
RICH: I was just sitting in a bar. I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get her hair cut, so just sitting in the park down there over on one of those benches, and just happened to be sitting there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just gazing out.
RICH: Pretty much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they seem like they were close? Were you worried about them?
RICH: Yes. That's why I looked up in that direction, is because, you know, obviously, you see planes and helicopters getting pretty close to each out here, but in that particular moment I looked up and I was like, they look really close.
And I thought the perspective, they might have been going right underneath each other. But unfortunately, you know, when they hit, there was a big cloud of white smoke that came out and there was definitely a collision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have you seen since then? Have they pulled any people out?
RICH: I don't know. You know, I have seen them -- initially, they had been concentrating on the airplane wreckage over here. The helicopter went straight down and initially nobody went over there, I think that's what they're doing right over here right now with the barge, but I know initially people were talking about two airplanes or one airplane going down, but, you know, unfortunately everybody is concentrating on the debris over here. I don't know what the status of these other people over here is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were the colors of some of the (INAUDIBLE).
RICH: The plane I believe was white and red and the helicopter was like -- I think it was white and blue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: That was an eyewitness account of Colin Rich. We've been hearing from people in so many different ways about what they saw starting just after noontime and throughout the day right now. It's now a recovery mission taking place there on the Hudson River as these two aircraft collided just after noontime, nine people are believed to have died in this crash. Two bodies have already been recovered according to New York mayor.
And the choppers that you are seeing in the video, these are rescue choppers. These are not images of the chopper involved prior to the collision. Josh Levs has been listening to a lot of eyewitness accounts as well, especially the gentleman who says he actually saw a tire that he believes might have been an aircraft tire just simply fall from the sky.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we have more and more reason to believe that really is what it is. It's one of the many stories we're getting here interactively, Fred, ever since this news broke, we've been following this in every possible way, especially on ireport.com.
Check this out, let's zoom in for a second. I just want everyone to see, we have a breaking news system set up here for your iReports if you're in that area. We're getting so many. A lot of people sending us pictures of what it's like in that area. Some of these police boats out there. A lot of people saying, you know what, they were there, they saw these police boats respond incredibly quickly.
I had also spotted this, that you just mentioned, this is on a Web site called mashable.com which traces what's going on on Twitter, Facebook, elsewhere. And they pointed me to this, and this is indeed this man's story.
Just imagine this, Fred, you're walking along the street. You're driving along the street, you hear a crashing sound and right in front of your car lands this huge chunk of tire. Well, that's what happened to this guy who tweeted about it, we spoke with him earlier, here's that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON MILLER, FOUND TIRE IN YARD: I was driving out of the Weehawken, New Jersey, into Hoboken. And I turned onto Sinatra Drive which runs parallel to the Hudson and...
LEVS: Actually, you know what, I pulled up a picture of that. So people can know where you were. You've got the Hudson right here. And then just to the west of that, where the A is, that is Sinatra Drive right now.
So geographically it does make sense that you would have been right near this. So you hear something. What happened?
MILLER: Yes, I heard a backfire. I actually thought I may have hit something on my car. And next thing I know, my girlfriend and I saw a whole bunch of debris falling out of the sky and a big splash in the Hudson. And about, I would say, maybe 20 feet in front of me, maybe a little bit closer or a little bit farther, the tire actually fell right on the roadway in front of our car.
LEVS: Jason, I can't tell from the picture, am I just seeing the rubber casing for a tire, or is that actual tire material in there? I mean, a tire is rubber casing. Is it just the exterior or was it solid what fell?
MILLER: It looks like it was just the exterior. I didn't see the rim or anything inside of it.
LEVS: So this fell right in front. And this could have hit your car? MILLER: It could have, yes.
LEVS: Now it must have had some velocity coming from the skies. Now as I understand, looking at your Twitter page, you have since looked at what you -- I guess some images, and you do believe that you saw that there were three other tires still attached to the plane. So you have extra reason to believe this was from the crash, right?
MILLER: Yes, that type of aircraft pretty much has that same tire. So I do have reason to believe it is.
And I saw the wing just kind of spiraling down, and maybe the wing may have hit something and shot it my way. But there was a lot of debris.
LEVS: Goodness. All right. Well, we have also been getting iReport photos. And, Jason, let me talk to you about this a little bit. You are in the area, you have been in the area, what are you seeing? What is it like? What did it sound like when you were there?
MILLER: Yes, you know, we had Jersey City cops, Weehawken, Hoboken, fire and rescue, people on the New York side, all converging on the site. They have since shut down that main road.
I actually ended up leaving. And it was just a lot of people looked very scared and were looking at the sky and running. And I don't think anybody really knew what happened.
There was one cop that was next to me and I think he was probably one of the first to call it in. And he didn't really see it either. Not too many people saw it. It's just -- I didn't even see the plane, just the wing and the tire.
LEVS: But you heard a sound and you knew to look in the area. And I want to emphasize, the tire that we are looking at is not from the helicopter at all. That's not what we are talking about. We're talking about the plane.
MILLER: Yes. I mean, it appears it would be to the plane, to the little plane that wrecked. Yes.
LEVS: Right. Exactly, I just wanted to emphasize that. The images that you were able to see later were from the plane and that's why you felt that indeed it was from there.
All right. So you are in this area. Has anything like this ever happened to you before? Have you ever seen anything like this?
MILLER: No. I mean, I am grateful I have never have seen anything like this before. And hopefully, hopefully, they do find more survivors.
LEVS: Yes, of course. And obviously a lot of people must be very concerned in the area.
What is it like for you now being in that vicinity, being a resident of that area? Are people hunkering down, staying home? Are people gathering somewhere? What are you seeing? What is happening in the community there?
MILLER: Yes, a lot of people -- I live right on the water. A lot of people have -- you know, kind of came out of their apartments and looked. The road is closed, so nobody is going back there to see anything.
And this is kind of in-line where the Hudson crash happened. So everybody is still on ice over that. And it's very fortunate that this happened again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEVS: And I'll tell you all that since then, we're gotten some iReport photos of people showing us that police have actually cordoned off the area where that tire hit the ground. Police investigating this crash. So more of a suggestion even now that it could indeed be linked.
And, Fred, I'll tell you something, coming up in just a couple of minutes, we're going to talk with a man who sent me this note on Facebook saying he was playing soccer, heard the crash, everyone thought it was a bomb. And he describes what happened from there. We're going to talk to him coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVS: So we're following this news of a crash between a helicopter and a small plane over the Hudson. Joining us is Keith Nye who sent me a Facebook message today.
And, Keith, you're telling me you were playing soccer, you heard this sound, and many thought it was a bomb?
KEITH NYE, CRASH WITNESS: Yes, that's correct.
LEVS: What happened?
NYE: Well, we had just been finished playing soccer, and we were hanging out on the field when we heard this just incredibly large crashing noise. I've never heard anything that loud in my life ever.
I flinched, I looked up, and the helicopter had broken in two and the plane was going down into the water. Everyone's initial reaction was just terror because the helicopter came down close to the New Jersey side and a few people thought it would actually hit pedestrians on the side of the river.
LEVS: And, Keith, I can actually show everyone where you were. Let's zoom to the screen behind me. I've pulled up a map. You were in Sinatra Park at Hoboken, right?
(CROSSTALK)
NYE: That's correct. LEVS: So here's the Hudson, people. And then over here, you've got the Hudson and then you have Frank Sinatra Park right there. So that's where you were playing soccer.
Keith, I've got to ask you, you're standing there in a park playing soccer, you look up and you see an aircraft splitting in two. What did that look like? What did you physically see at that distance?
NYE: Well, it happened extremely quickly, like a lot of people have mentioned, but there was just a ton of debris in the air. The tail section was completely separated from the cockpit or the front of the helicopter. The front just took a nose dive from there from what I saw, and went straight into the water.
The plane kind of -- it barked (ph) into the water further into the center of the river.
LEVS: Keith, obviously such a tragedy for these people. We're all thinking of them.
NYE: It is.
LEVS: Before I let you go here, was there pandemonium on the ground? Did people scatter and scream? Did people come together and say, this is what we're going to do? What happened with those of you who were outside enjoying the park?
NYE: There were a few people that were screaming and were having trouble with it. For the most part, a lot of people, their immediate reaction was to call 911, which was great.
LEVS: And other than that, you saw mostly order, you saw people doing the right thing?
NYE: Yes, yes, everyone did the right thing. They gave out the emergency services, all the room they needed. It was pretty calm on the ground. Everyone was...
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: Well, Keith, as one of the many people -- hey, Keith, I'm sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you, thank you so much for joining us today. I'll tell you, one of the many people, Fred, we've been hearing from via Twitter and Facebook. My page is @joshlevscnn, just write us, we want to talk to you.
And so many iReports coming in as well. We want your iReports to keep on coming. And I'll be here for the next few hours, Fred, planted right here showing everyone what we get.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it is incredible hearing from people who saw what happened. It was a clear, beautiful day, just after noontime earlier today in Lower Manhattan, and right near Hoboken, New Jersey. And people were able to see with their very own eyes, this small aircraft we three people on board and a tourist helicopter with six people on board, including the pilot and five tourists from Italy.
It simply collided and careened right into the Hudson River there. And within minutes, according to eyewitnesses, search and rescue sprung into action. But we heard from the mayor moments ago, all nine presumed dead. Two bodies have since been recovered. This was simply an accident that was not survivable.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield, thanks for being with us. Don Lemon is up next to continue our coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
