A sightseeing helicopter carrying foreign tourists suddenly plunged upside-down into the East River just seconds after takeoff today, killing a woman who was trapped inside as it sank in the chilly, murky waters.
Pilot Paul Dudley, and passenger Paul Nicholson, 72, were spotted screaming for help as they struggled to cling to the skids of the overturned aircraft moments after it had spun wildly out of control and crashed just off the East 34th helipad in 50 feet of water around 3 p.m.
Rescuers pull passengers from the crashed helicopter out of the water. (Greg Mocker/WPIX11 )
Survivors are rescued by diving crews after their tourist helicopter crashed into the East River. (ROBERT MILLER)
“One was yelling, ‘There’s three more! There’s three more inside!’ And then [the helicopter] sunk,” said Luis Reyes, 23, a dog-walker who witnessed the horrifying crash.
NYPD and FDNY divers were in the water within minutes and managed to pull Dudley, a veteran helicopter pilot, Nicholson, his wife, Harriet, 60, and Helen Tamaski, 43, to safety.
Nicholson’s daughter, Sonia, was pulled dead from the water about 90 minutes later, said a law-enforcement source. The family was in town for her 40th birthday, and they were friends of the pilot.
Witnesses said the 1978 Bell Ranger 206-B chopper spun in circles as it appeared to struggle to get back to the pier for an emergency landing before splashing down into the fast-moving waters and sinking almost instantly.
“I saw the helicopter going toward the ramp, and it seemed to be struggling, and it was leaning forward, too forward,” said Christopher Laukans, 32, who was leaving a nearby dentist office at the time.
“Then it started spinning about three to four times, and then it went in the water.”
FDNY diver Robert Lopez said he had to battle strong currents to rescue Dudley, who had floated away from the downed chopper.
“[The pilot] was in shock and said there was still someone in the helicopter,” said Lopez, a 10-year veteran.
“I brought him back to the pier. He was about 30 yards out. It was a bit of a struggle, [but] we pulled him in.”
Mayor Bloomberg said the Nicholsons are British nationals who live in Portugal, while their daughter and Tamaski, Sonia’s partner, lived together in Australia.
Dudley was not seriously injured, and Nicholson was treated and released from NYU Medical Center.
Nicholson’s wife and the other surviving woman were rushed to Bellevue, where they remained in critical condition, one in cardiac arrest.
Dudley, a longtime pilot and Staten Island resident who now runs a municipal airport in Linden, had an earlier brush with death in 2006 when his single-engine plane faltered over Coney Island. But he managed to land safely in a city park and walk away from the near-miss.
This time, things went horrifically different.
“Apparently, the pilot said he was having trouble [in the air] and he was trying to get back’’ to shore, Bloomberg said. “We have no idea if it was mechanical or human error.”
“All New Yorkers feel for the families, and we wish that this did not happen,” he said.
Bloomberg personally called British Prime Minister David Cameron to deliver the sad news and offer his condolences. He noted that the city’s rescue effort “was quite amazing.”
Timothy McGurr, 26, a photographer from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said he saw divers rescuing one of the women.
“They had her in a life preserver and were giving her CPR in the water. It didn’t seem like she was conscious because her head kept coming in and out of the water,” McGurr said.
“Then they pulled her out and put her in a stretcher. I really could not believe what was happening. It looked like the pilot was struggling.”
Robert Dress, 36, a teacher who was at the pier with his son watching helicopters take off, said the chopper was in the air only about 20 seconds.
“It went up 20, 30 feet and peeled over the river, and you could see it was in trouble,’’ he said.
“It came down in the river upside-down. It wasn’t a graceful thing, it was violent. At first I thought the pilot would get it up, but it ended in a bad way.”
“It sank fast,” said Carlos Acevedo, 40, of Puerto Rico, who was nearby with his wife.
“To me, it seemed like seconds,’’ he said. “It’s like the water sucked it in.”
Gerry Deverin, an executive at West Wind Solutions who was about to get on the East River ferry at East 34th, added: “I saw the chopper. It was going to land, and it was short of the dock by like 30 yards. It flipped totally upside-down.
“The response was incredible. They were here real quick,’’ he said of rescue crews. “Four guys dove in, they pulled somebody out.
“I’ve been coming here for years and been thinking: I can’t believe they land [helicopters] on that little dock,” Deverin added.
Joy Garnett and her husband were on the dock waiting to take the ferry to Brooklyn when they heard the blades of the chopper and saw it start to take off.
Garnett said she saw it do “a funny curlicue.”
“I thought, ‘Is that some daredevil move?’ ” she said. “But it was obviously out of control. The body spun around at least two or three times, and then it went down.”
Lau Kamg was walking nearby when he saw the chopper go down.
“The sound got my attention,” he said. “I saw it splash.”
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, officials said.
At the time, the weather was clear but windy, with winds of 10 mph gusting to 20 mph, and visibility at 10 miles, according to the weather station at La Guardia Airport.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland, Douglas Montero, Lisa Riordan Seville, Joe Mollica, Rebecca Harshbarger and Kevin Fasick