One person has died after a helicopter crash-landed onto the roof of a midtown Manhattan building and caught fire, New York Fire Department officials have confirmed.
The helicopter crashed into a 54-story office building on New York’s 7th avenue, north of the Theater District and Times Square, just before 2pm.
Emergency responders continue to work at the scene “in response to fuel leaking from the helicopter,” FDNY tweeted.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo showed up on the scene shortly after the accident. Asked by a reporter how he felt to hear an aircraft had crashed into a Manhattan building, he said every New Yorker had “a level of PTSD from 9/11,” but added that there was no indication that there was anything more to the incident and that the aircraft had just attempted an emergency or “hard” landing on the roof.
Cuomo also said the emergency responders had brought the fire on the roof under control. Around 100 fire and emergency service units have been dispatched to the area.
Footage emerged on Twitter of the building being evacuated after the crash. “We felt a jolt in our building and shortly after got the instruction to evacuate,” one worker in the building tweeted.
The area is “swarming with police officers, emergency vehicles, fire trucks, and everybody is looking up,” NBC journalist Rehema Ellis reported, suggesting that poor visibility and rainy conditions could have contributed to the accident. There has been strong wind and rain in the city all day.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the accident in a statement later on Monday afternoon.
“There is no indication at this time that this was an act of terror, and there is no ongoing threat to New York City based on all the information we have right now,” the mayor said, adding “there is no danger of any kind to New Yorkers at this point.”
The mayor said he was not aware of what caused the crash.
The aircraft was privately owned, according to the New York police commissioner James O’Neill, though authorities could not say whether the pilot had obtained the proper air clearances for the flight or made contact with air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport.
Helicopters are often used for transportation and sight-seeing over Manhattan.
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