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One of five passengers – three of whom believed to be British – dies in crash that took place just after takeoff from Manhattan A sightseeing trip over Manhattan turned to tragedy after a helicopter carrying a number of British tourists plunged into New York’s East river, killing at least one female passenger. Police officers who reacted to the crash were hailed as heroes after they were involved in a dramatic rescue operation – much of it picked up by television cameras – hauling survivors from the submerged and overturned helicopter. The Bell helicopter encountered difficulties shortly after its takeoff from a helipad and spun into the water, turning upside down and sinking. Two passengers on board are believed to be a British couple living in Portugal while two other passengers, one of whom is also thought to be British, live in Australia, the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said. According to reports the tourists included a woman, her parents and a friend. Bloomberg said that the dead woman, a 40-year-old who lived in Sydney, had been trapped inside the helicopter . US reports named the pilot as Paul Dudley, director of Linden Airport in New Jersey, who also once piloted a Cessna light plane that made an emergency landing in a Brooklyn park in November 2006 after engine failure. “From what we know so far, the pilot reported having trouble keeping aloft, tried to turn back but crashed in the water just north of the landing pad,” Bloomberg told a press conference. He added: “A tragedy like this just breaks your heart.” “All New Yorkers feel for this family. It’s a sad day, and we wish it had not happened. Our prayers are for the deceased and for the three still in hospital who we hope will recover from their injuries,” Bloomberg said. Emergency services arrived to see only the helicopter’s skids showing on the surface after the crash just after 3.20pm local time, near East 34th Street in midtown Manhattan. The pilot and three passengers were bobbing in the chilly water and it looked as though a man was diving down and coming back up, possibly in an attempt to rescue the remaining passenger, according to witnesses. Counterterrorism officers responded first and jumped into the water. The pilot swam to the riverbank and was uninjured. Detective Martin Speechley of the New York Police Department told Sky News that the rescue had been carried out underwater in extremely testing circumstances. “You really can’t see more than a foot or two in front of your face, so most of the recovery effort would have been done by touch,” he said. Two of the woman, one of whom had suffered a cardiac arrest, were in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital that is located very close to the crash site. The passengers were understood to have known the pilot and were all friends. Witnesses described seeing the helicopter appear to spin out of control after takeoff. Jose Reyes, 58, told the New York Times: “I saw the helicopter start to spin, and then it went down. Three seconds, then boom.” He said two men were shouting for help. “They were screaming, ‘Three more inside.’” Dan Sweeney, manager at the nearby Water Club restaurant, said: “It went down pretty fast, you could see the splash, you could see the top of it and it just disappeared,” he said. “It looked like it was trying to land at the heliport and missed the landing.” Joy Garnett and her husband were on the dock waiting to take the East river ferry to Brooklyn when they heard the blades of a helicopter and saw it start to take off from the nearby helipad. She said that she saw it do “a funny curlicue.” “I thought, ‘Is that some daredevil move?’” she said. “But it was obviously out of control. The body spun around at least two or three times.” She said people on the dock started throwing in life jackets and buoys. “It didn’t make much noise,” she said. “It was just a splash and sunk.” The weather was clear but a little windy at the time of the crash. Carlos Acevedo, of Puerto Rico, who was with his wife at a nearby park, said: “It sank fast. In seconds. Like the water was sucking it in.” Lau Kamg was also walking nearby. “The sound got my attention,” he said. I saw it splash.” The helicopter was raised from the water hours later A spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington said last night: “We are urgently investigating with the authorities in New York.” New safety measures Before Tuesday’s fatal incident, two other high-profile air crashes in the waters around New York City preceded the introduction of stringent new rules governing pilot behaviour in the area. In August 2009, a small plane collided with a helicopter over the Hudson river, on the other side of Manhattan from the East river, killing nine people, including five Italian tourists. Hundreds of people on both sides of the mile-wide river witnessed the collision, which involved a helicopter operated by a sightseeing company engaged in flying tourists around sites such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and a light plane that had taken off from Teterboro airport in New Jersey. A government safety panel found that an air traffic controller who was on a personal phone call had contributed to the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules for aircraft flying over New York City’s rivers after that collision. Pilots must call out their positions on the radio and obey a 161mph speed limit. Before the changes, such radio calls were optional. Earlier that year, in what became known as the Miracle on the Hudson, an Airbus 320 airliner landed on the Hudson after hitting birds and losing both engines shortly after taking off from LaGuardia. Chesley Sullenberger, who was the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, was hailed a hero after all 155 passengers and crew were rescued. He reported a “double bird strike” less than a minute after takeoff and asked to return to the ground, before ditching in the Hudson. Ferryboats arrived shortly afterwards to rescue passengers who were taken from the wings or recovered from the river. United States New York Ben Quinn Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk