A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York on Thursday, April 10, emergency services said, as local media reported multiple deaths in the incident. Several people were pulled from the water and taken to a hospital in New Jersey, the NBC4 broadcaster reported, citing law enforcement at the scene, adding that four had died. ABC7 reported three fatalities, although emergency services had yet to confirm any toll.
Images showed the chopper's landing skids protruding from the river beside Manhattan's West Side Highway as several boats clustered around the impact site. Police from both New York and New Jersey, which is on the opposite side of the river from Manhattan, were at the scene along with fire department vessels.
The NBC4 channel reported that its own helicopter was unable to take off because of conditions, with the weather in New York on Thursday windy under thick cloud cover. Witnesses told the outlet that the main rotor blade had come loose from the aircraft. Aircraft tracking service FlightRadar24 reported that, based on air traffic control data, the helicopter was likely a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV.
The river is a busy shipping channel and the scene of a dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways jet safely landed in the water. All 155 people on board escaped with their lives in an event dubbed "Miracle on the Hudson." The river is as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) at points, and the images of the helicopter appeared to show floatation devices deployed on the aircraft's skids. The average temperature of the river is 46° Fahrenheit (8° Celsius) at this time of year, according to the US Geological Survey.
There is a heliport close to the Hudson Yards development, but it was unclear if the aircraft was heading to or from the facility. "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," the New York Police Department wrote in a statement. A fire service spokesperson said that "we got the call at 3:17 pm (1917 GMT)" about a "helicopter in the water," but was unable to give other information.
There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough President Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions on helicopter traffic in the city.
A Delta Airlines jet with 80 people onboard crash-landed Monday, February 17, at Toronto's main airport, officials said, flipping upside down and leaving at least 18 people injured but causing no deaths. Endeavor Air Flight 4819 with 76 passengers and four crew was landing in the afternoon in Canada's largest metropolis, having flown from Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota, the airline said.
Paramedic services told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that 15 people were injured, including three critically – a child, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s. All wounded people, including those with minor injuries, were taken to area hospitals either by ambulance or helicopter, said the paramedic services' Lawrence Saindon. No explanation of the cause of the accident, or how the plane ended up on its back with its wings clipped, has been provided.
"It's very early on. It's really important that we do not speculate. What we can say is the runway was dry and there was no crosswind conditions," said Todd Aitken, the airport's fire chief. He confirmed that 18 people had been injured in the accident, with no fatalities.
Dramatic images on local broadcasts and shared on social media showed people stumbling away from the upside down CRJ-900 plane, shielding their faces from strong gusts of wind and blowing snow. Fire crews appeared to douse the aircraft with water as smoke wafted from the fuselage and as passengers were still exiting the plane.
Toronto airport authority chief executive Deborah Flint told a news conference the incident did not involve any other planes. Emergency crews were "heroic" in their response, she said, "reaching the site within minutes and quickly evacuating the passengers." Some of them "have already been reunited with their friends and their families," she added.
The airport suspended all flights after the incident, before resuming them at around 5:00 pm local time, more than two hours later. It said passengers should expect long delays.
Snowstorm in eastern Canada
Delta said its connection flight operated by Endeavor had been "involved in an incident," and promised to share further details as it confirmed them. "Initial reports were that there are no fatalities," the airline said through a spokesperson's statement.
A massive snowstorm hit eastern Canada on Sunday. Strong winds and bone-chilling temperatures could still be felt in Toronto on Monday when airlines added flights to make up for weekend cancellations due to the storm.
"The snow has stopped coming down, but frigid temperatures and high winds are moving in," the airport warned earlier, adding that it was "expecting a busy day in our terminals with over 130,000 travellers on board around 1,000 flights."
Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand confirmed there were 80 people on the flight. "I'm closely following the serious incident at the Pearson Airport involving Delta Airlines flight 4819 from Minneapolis," she posted on X.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, said he was "relieved there are no casualties after the incident at Toronto Pearson," adding that airport and local authorities were providing help. Canada's Transportation Safety Board said it was deploying a team of investigators to the site of the crash.
This comes after other recent air incidents in North America, including a mid-air collision between a US Army helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington that killed 67 people, and a medical transport plane crash in Philadelphia that left seven dead.