Tourist Helicopter Collides with Plane

A tourist helicopter carrying six collided with a small aircraft over the Hudson River near New York City on Saturday afternoon. Despite emergency crews rushing to the scene, one person was confirmed deceased, with all nine passengers likely dead. Mayor Bloomberg gave a press conference, saying, "It appears that this was not survivable. This is not going to have a happy ending." The small plane reported engine failure shortly after leaving Teterboro airport and crashed into the helicopter, which was owned by the sightseeing group Liberty Tours, and contained five Italian tourists. One bystander who observed the crash from Hoboken, said, "There was a loud pop, almost like a car backfire...The helicopter dropped like a rock."