Helicopter Plane Crash over Hudson River and Five Dead Body Located

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Police divers locate dead body of a fifth victim from Helicopter and small Plane crash over Hudson river in New York city. Collision of Plane, Helicopter over Hudson was addressed by National Transportation Safety Board.

Police divers have located the body of a fifth victim from the Hudson River air collision, officials said.

A crane also lifted parts of the helicopter, which collided with a private plane in midair Saturday, onto a barge. The barge then headed north to a nearby pier. Recovery efforts resumed this morning, after stopping Saturday night.

All nine people aboard both aircraft — three in the private plane and six in the helicopter — are presumed dead. The two aircrafts disappeared almost immediately into 30 feet of water.

Three bodies – two adults and a child – were recovered from the water Saturday night.

The Coast Guard is enforcing a safety zone around the recovery operation, which is being led by the Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard spokeswoman Barbara Patton said today.

Matt Lonardo, 51, who lives about three blocks from the waterfront, watched the recovery effort this afternoon from Frank Sinatra Park. He heard about the crash on the news Saturday, and went out today because he was curious, Lonardo said. About 20 other people gathered nearby, staring at the river.

Lonardo said that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has hardened him to disaster. “Nothing shocks us anymore,” he said.

The plane, a Piper PA-32, was registered to LCA Partnership in Fort Washington, Pa. The address is shared by a company run by Steven Altman, of Ambler, Pa. A woman who answered the telephone yesterday at Altman’s home hung up, and police wouldn’t let reporters enter a private driveway leading to the home.

The passengers on board the helicopter, a Eurocopter AS-350 owned and operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours of Linden, have been identified as Italian tourists by authorities.

Liberty, which has its headquarters at Linden Airport, said it would be issuing a statement later this afternoon. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were seen leaving the airport. It was not known why they were there.

When the search was called off Saturday afternoon at 6:30, just three bodies, two adults and a child, had been recovered. The recovery effort resumed around 8 a.m. today, authorities said, and a temporary flight restriction over the rescue area — about three nautical miles around and 2,000 feet up — was put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Shortly before the accident, an off-duty Liberty pilot at the 30th Street helipad, from which the doomed helicopter had just taken off, noticed the Piper and quickly radioed his colleague, “You have a fixed-wing behind you.”

There was no response, said Debbie Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Seconds later, the plane’s right wing was sheared off by the helicopter, the off-duty pilot told the NTSB.

Charlie O’Donnell, 30, of Brooklyn, was kayaking on the New York side of the river in the area of West 12th Street when he heard a “loud bang.”

“The helicopter immediately went into a corkscrew and went down,” said O’Donnell, who helps run a paddling program called Downtown Boat House out of Pier 40 in New York. “At first I wasn’t sure what I was seeing was real. It’s just so unlikely.”

Helicopter Plane Crash over Hudson River and Five Dead Body Located

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