MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG BRIEFS NEW YORKERS ON MID-AIR COLLISION OVER THE HUDSON RIVER

The following are Mayor Bloomberg’s remarks as delivered:

“I’msad to report that about 12 o’clock this afternoon, there was anaccident which we do not believe was survivable, between an airplaneand a helicopter.

“Thehelicopter was a sightseeing helicopter, an A3 Star 50 made byEurocopters and we think the airplane was a Piper Saratoga. Theairplane, we think, took off from Teterboro and had on board a pilotand two passengers, one a child. We do not have the names or ages orwhere they come from. And on the helicopter there were five Italiantourists and a pilot.

“Wehave at this point found two bodies. We’re not sure where one of themcame from. The other one we’re reasonably sure came from thehelicopter. We found some wreckage. We believe that it is thehelicopter, but the visibility is about two feet at a depth of 30 feeton the Jersey side of the river, opposite roughly 14^th Street where the wreckage is located.

“We’venot found the second piece of wreckage. We’re assuming we have thehelicopter, but I cannot for sure say that, in which case we’re lookingfor the airplane or vice-versa.

“Withme today is our Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Kelvin Drayton, FirstDeputy Commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, JoeEsposito, Chief of the Department of the NYPD, Ronny Spadafora, DeputyAssistant Chief of the FDNY, John Peruggia, Chief of EMS, ScottStringer, our Borough President has joined us, and we also haverepresentatives from the National Transportation Safety Board, whichwill do the complete investigation. We also have the Coast Guard onboard and we have representatives from the Port Authority, the HarborPolice, New York State Police. Over on the 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 30^th Street.There were a number of eyewitnesses who saw the crash.  It would appearthat the airplane ran into the back side of the helicopter, but keep inmind, with all of these things, number one until NationalTransportation Safety Board makes the determination, nothing is a fact,and it can take them many weeks or even years to determine what goeson. This probably won’t be that big an investigation but they will do acomplete investigation before they announce their conclusions as towhat happened, and whether there are any steps that should be taken toimprove safety and to prevent similar tragedies such as this. 

“ThePolice Department has sent some of their Community Affairs Unit, andthe Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs both are with the families ofthose who had taken off from 30^th Streetand are providing counseling. I gather that they don’t speak English sowe have some Italian speakers there.  And we have professionals whosadly all too often have to learn how to deal with tragedy, and helpthe families get through this difficult period.

“Imight point out that as you would expect, the Red Cross is here,providing the kind of assistance that we need. Both the Fire Departmentand the PD have boats and divers and everything’s being done, but Ithink it’s fair to say this has changed from a rescue to a recoverymission. And that probably was what we could have started out with theinstant it happened.

“Thereis some evidence from eyewitnesses that one of the wings of theairplane was severed or separated, probably severed by the rotors ofthe helicopters, but we won’t know, as I said, until the NTSB doestheir investigation.

“Wewill, over the next hours, remove the bodies from whether it’s thehelicopter or the airplane that we found, but at this point ourparamount focus is on making sure that our divers are safe. We don’twant them to make this tragedy any worse than it’s already been, and wewill 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 questions, butnobody really knows any more than what I’ve just said, and so if youwant to ask about more, you’re going to get the same answer.”