At least two dead in Hudson disaster

Two bodies have been recovered so far after a small plane collided with a tour helicopter over the Hudson River near Manhattan today.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed there was a child on the plane and the helicopter contained five Italian tourists plus the pilot.

The plane had three people on board.

The accident happened just after noon between Manhattan and Hoboken, New Jersey.

The coastguard said one person had been rescued and New York City Fire Department officials on the scene said there appear to have been fatalities.

The plane, a Piper PA-32, took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and the helicopter was a Eurocopter AS 350 owned by Liberty Tours, a sightseeing and charter company, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

Officials do not know how many people were aboard the plane, but FAA spokesman Jim Peters said there may have been five passengers and one crew member aboard the helicopter.

Emergency crews were on both sides of the river and police divers were going into the water.

People who saw the crash and its aftermath described the two aircraft colliding not far from the Hoboken shoreline, and said the impact sheared off the plane's wing.

"There was a loud pop, almost like a car backfire," said Buzz Nahas, who saw the crash from the shore in Hoboken. "The helicopter dropped like a rock."

Katie Tanski, of Hoboken, heard the noise of the collision, looked up and saw chaos in the air.

"We saw the helicopter propellers fly all over," she said. Some pieces of the wreckage fell on land, sending Ms Tanski and others scurrying for cover.

Seven months ago, the same river was the scene of a spectacular aircraft accident. In January, a US Airways flight taking off from LaGuardia Airport slammed into a flock of birds and lost power in both engines. The plane crash-landed in the Hudson River, and all 155 people on board were pulled to safety.

Liberty Tours runs sightseeing excursions around the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Manhattan at costs ranging from $130 (€91.63) to about $1,000 (€704.87).

Two years ago, a Liberty helicopter fell 500ft from the sky during a sightseeing trip. The pilot was credited with safely landing the chopper in the same river and helping evacuate her seven passengers.

In 1997, a rotor on one of its sightseeing helicopters clipped a Manhattan building, forcing an emergency landing. No one was hurt.