Videos shared on social media showed the helicopter upside down in the river. Avi Rakesh, who posted footage from the crash site on X, said he saw the helicopter going south toward New Jersey when “the chopper blade flew off.”
“I don’t know what happened to the tail, but it just straight up dropped,” Rakesh told NBC News. “It dropped feet away from Holland Tunnel.”
The FDNY said their land marine units are executing rescue operations.
Amid the tragedy, the New York Police Department noted in an X message, “Due to a helicopter crash in the Hudson River, in the vicinity of the West Side Highway and Spring Street, expect emergency vehicles and traffic delays in the surrounding areas.”