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NEW YORK (CBS) ― Tragedy on the Hudson.

A small plane collided with a helicopter packed with tourists, and no one is believed to have survived.

"This is not going to have a happy ending," NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

There was a violent collision, and then debris began falling from the sky. Momentary terror was pushed aside for a desperate search in the water.

Police boats, divers, and emergency teams are still searching the murky Hudson River for the wreckage.

Nine people were on board the plane and helicopter, including one child.

"It is a great tragedy," Bloomberg said. "All the people of New York, in the New York region, have their prayers for the families of the deceased."

It happened just after noon on a crystal clear summer day. A tour helicopter, taking off from the 30th Street heliport, collided with a small plane over the Hudson that had just taken off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

Witnesses described chaos in the air as the helicopter dropped like a rock.

"I looked up, and I saw a piece of the plane hit the helicopter," a witness said. "I thought the helicopter looked like it was going into the water."

"Something hit the blades," another witness said. "I saw the blades come off, and the helicopter goes nose down."

As rescue crews rushed to the scene, police divers were dispatched.

"These divers were in this area very quickly, and in the water very quickly," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Further north, at the heliport, an Italian tourist arrived to find family members of the fellow tourists from Italy who had boarded the helicopter.

"They said to me, 'there are some relatives, our relatives, inside the helicopter,'" the tourist said.

Divers very quickly found wreckage of one of the aircraft with bodies inside, but the recovery effort was hampered by low visibility and swift currents.

By the time the mayor briefed the press, the scope of the tragedy had become evident – a rescue mission had become a recovery mission.

"If anybody had survived, we would've been there," Bloomberg said. "Sadly, it appears to us at this point that this was not survivable, from virtually the instant of the accident."

According to NTSB chair Debbie Hersman, three bodies have been recovered.

Dive operations have been suspended Saturday night, and will resume at 7 a.m. Sunday morning.

Commissioner Kelly said divers would continue to search until their mission is finished.

Federal Aviation Administration officials say the small plane was lost on radar shortly after leaving Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. It was headed south.

The plane, a Piper PA-32, was registered to LCA Partnership in Fort Washington, Pa., and had just taken off from Teterboro, heading for Ocean City, N.J., authorities said. The helicopter was a Eurocopter AS 350 owned by Liberty Tours, a sightseeing and charter company. It was struck by the plane shortly after lifting off from a heliport on Manhattan's West side.

At least some people saw the crash developing. Another Liberty Tours helicopter pilot on the ground at the heliport saw the plane approaching the helicopter and tried to radio an alert to the pilots, Commissioner Kelly said. The warning either wasn't heard, or didn't happen in time.

Hersman elaborated: "He said he was looking west and the accident helicopter was heading south. He saw a small single-engine aircraft approaching behind the helicopter. He radioed the helicopter and told them 'One Lima Hotel, you have a fixed-wing behind you.' There was no response from the pilot."

Kelly Owen, who was visiting from Florida, saw the crash from a Manhattan park built upon an abandoned elevated rail line.

"First I saw a piece of something flying through the air. Then I saw the helicopter going down into the water," she said, adding that the crowd in the park seemed too stunned to react. "I thought it was my imagination."

Bloomberg said three people were believed aboard the single-engine airplane, while five Italian tourists and one pilot were aboard the helicopter.

The mayor said one large piece of wreckage had been discovered by divers. It was believed to be the fuselage of the helicopter, but that could not be confirmed. At least one of the two recovered bodies was located there, he said.

Bloomberg said the wreckage that was discovered was in about 30 feet of water in poor visibility. He told reporters divers could see only about two or three feet because the water was quite murky.

The aircraft entered the water near Pier 40, at about 14th Street, in Manhattan.

Bloomberg said the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

Stay with WCBSTV.com for more as it becomes available.

CBS 2's John Metaxas contributed to this report.



 

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