A tourist helicopter plummeted upside down into New York City's Hudson River on Thursday killing all six people on board, including a Spanish family with three children and the pilot, Mayor Eric Adams says.
Agustin Escobar, an executive at Germany-based technology company Siemens, was among those killed according to the New York Times, which cited unnamed law enforcement sources.
New York City police referred requests for confirmation that Escobar was aboard the helicopter to the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said in a statement that it did not yet have the names of the victims. Siemens did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Video of the crash showed what appeared to be a large object plunging into the river, followed seconds later by what appeared to be a helicopter blade.
The Bell 206 chopper, operated by New York Helicopter Tours, departed about 3pm on Thursday (local time) from a downtown helicopter pad and flew north over the Hudson, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
It turned south when it reached the George Washington Bridge and crashed minutes later, hitting the water upside down and getting submerged near Lower Manhattan about 3.15pm, just off Hoboken in New Jersey, she added.
Divers helped remove the victims - the pilot, another two adults and three children - from the water. Four were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others were taken to area hospitals where they died.
The airspace around Manhattan is crowded with helicopters offering tourists a bird's-eye view of the sights, with at least two dozen operators listed on the website Viator. Many of the operators also offer helicopter shuttle services to the area airports.
New York Helicopter Tours, which offers sightseeing flights for as little as $US114 ($NZ196) per person on its website, did not respond immediately to a request for comment about the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB leading the investigation.
Duffy said the FAA was also launching a Safety Review Team on Thursday evening. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy and a team from the board will arrive in New York later in the day and plan to hold a news briefing on Friday.
New York City has a history of accidents involving helicopters. In 2018, five passengers aboard a helicopter died when it crashed into the East River, while the pilot survived. The helicopter was on a charter flight that featured an open door to allow passengers to take photographs of the skyline.
A New York City Police spokesperson said that police boats had assisted in Thursday's rescue efforts.
Helicopter safety has been a topic of discussion in the US Congress after 67 people were killed in a crash between an American Airlines regional jet and Army helicopter on January 29 this year near Washington DC's Reagan National Airport.
The FAA has since permanently restricted helicopter traffic near the airport and is reviewing helicopter operations near other major airports.
Plane struck at Washington airport
An American Airlines plane carrying at least three members of Congress at Reagan Washington National Airport was struck on the taxiway by the wingtip of another American Airlines jet, the FAA said.
American Airlines flight 5490, a Bombardier CRJ 900 headed to Charleston, South Carolina, struck American flight 4522, an Embraer E175 headed to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, about 12.45pm (local time) on Thursday, it said. No injuries were reported.
Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, said on social media that he was on the flight to New York when the incident occurred while waiting to take off on the runway.
The latest mishap at Reagan National will intensify scrutiny over how air traffic is handled at the airport near Washington that has the single busiest US runway.
American said both aircraft taxied to the terminal and were taken out of service to be inspected by maintenance teams. The damage was limited to a winglet on each aircraft.
