(Photo) Plane Crash Into Hudson River: One Dead

At least one person is dead Saturday after a sightseeing helicopter and a small airplane collided in midair just before noon over the Hudson River, authorities said.

Debris from both aircraft fell on impact into the water between Manhattan and New Jersey.

Rescue divers are “searching for survivors and casualties” at the crash site, which is in the vicinity of West 14th Street in Manhattan between the island and New Jersey, said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman.

Six people were aboard the helicopter, which belongs to Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, Browne said.

It was not clear who among the dead and the rescued were aboard which aircraft.

The plane that crashed, a Piper PA-32, had taken off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration told The Associated Press. The chopper is a Eurocopter AS 350.

A witness who told the AP that he saw the crash from the shore in Hoboken, N.J., said the helicopter “dropped like a rock” and that the plane lost its wing. He said he heard a loud pop that sounded like a car backfire.

Browne said police have received reports of debris found on the New Jersey side of the river including a “tire that appears to have come from one of the aircraft.”

NY1, the cable news station, has been showing images of boats converging on the Hudson between Hoboken and Manhattan, with the crash site closer to the New Jersey side.

A jogger said that she saw a body covered with a sheet lying on the pier near a staging area being used by rescue workers.

Along the esplanade on the Manhattan side, dozens of bicyclists, runners and skaters have stopped to watch the rescue efforts.

This isn’t the first time a Liberty chopper has crashed into the Hudson.

In July 2007, a sightseeing chopper crashed into the river between midtown and Weehawken, N.J. None of the eight people on board – the pilot and seven passengers – were injured.

Weeks later, smoke from a broken lightbulb forced a Liberty helicopter to make an emergency landing in Manhattan’s Riverside Park.