Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty
A helicopter pilot is lucky to be alive after his aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing into New York’s Hudson River.
“About 30 minutes ago, a helicopter made a safe emergency landing on floats in the Hudson River near the heliport. There were no passengers on board,” the rep tells PEOPLE. “The pilot was not injured and immediately exited the aircraft.”
The New York Police Department’s Special Operations Unit also confirmed the incident on Twitter, noting that the aircraft had just taken off from a heliport on West 30th Street when it crashed into the water. The pilot of the helicopter did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Hudson River helicopter crash.
“It was just instinct. Just another day for NY Waterway rescues. We’re right here. Edwin Montoya is an outstanding deckhand. He moved instantly to the rescue,” Capt Sciaino said in a statement.
According to the Special Ops authorities, scuba divers were called in shortly after the crash to assist with the helicopter’s recovery.
The aircraft has since been transported to land as the National Transportation Safety Board looks further into what caused the emergency landing, the NYPD Special Ops team reports on Twitter.
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Since the incident, Blade tells PEOPLE that the accident is being treated as an “emergency landing.”
Sergeant Jessica McRorie, a spokesperson for the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, tells PEOPLE that the injury the pilot sustained was to his hand: “The helicopter had refueled and was attempting to move to another location when it landed in the water. The pilot sustained a minor injury to his hand as a result of the landing.”
“We were the first units to arrive on scene of the helicopter in the Hudson River, and Lt. Chris King immediately notified Manhattan Dispatch,” O’Neill wrotein a statement on Facebook. “The pilot was exiting the helicopter and getting onto a civilian boat.”
“Firefighter Chris Morgan and I entered the helicopter in the water to make sure there were no additional passengers. The rear part of the cabin had already begun to fill up with water. We verified that the emergency fuel was shut off, and secured the helicopter using ropes to the bulkhead and an FDNY Marine unit,” he continued.
“We train for this – we are set up for scuba diving, and were prepared for a surface rescue or a dive into a submerged helicopter,” O’Neill added.
The incident comes just two days aftertwo floatplanes carrying cruise ship passengers collidedoff the southeastern coast in Alaska, killing at least five people and injuring at least 10.
source: people.com
