A witness who saw a horrifying helicopter crash in New York City on Thursday which killed all six people on board has shared her harrowing experience of watching the incident unfold.
The helicopter crashed into the Hudson River around Pier 40 in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon. Among the victims who lost their lives were one pilot along with a family of two adults and three children. Four people were announced dead at the scene while another two didn't survive after being taken to hospital.
It has been reported that the five passengers were tourists from Spain who were on a sightseeing trip to the city.
In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN), witness Belle Angel recounted the shocking incident in detail as it unfolded at around 15:15 local time.
"I noticed that [there was] a helicopter, the propeller just exploded in the air. There were other people on the boardwalk and we were like, first we were shocked, we were like, 'did you see that, is that real?' We were like questioning ourselves: 'did that just happen?' Because as soon as the propeller exploded, the helicopter lost control and it was waving back and forth, it was like a sway," she said.
"It just kept going, and then it crashed into the water. We screamed because we were like, this just didn't happen. You are just like in disbelief, like, no, we didn't see this. You just can't believe that it just happened like that," she added.
Angel said there appeared to be a slow initial response at the scene, with even the police seemingly unprepared for the situation and failing to coordinate an immediate rescue effort.
"We were questioning each other like what do we do? Do we call 911? I'm like, what do we do, because people could be on that plane (helicopter) that just crashed. There is no help, it's just there. And I noticed that for the first 10 minutes nobody knew what to do, so I kept walking. I saw a police officer and they were like, 'OK, we're with Hoboken [Police Department], we're taking care of it'. But my point is, I know when my train left at 3:30 p.m., there was no help. There was nobody there. There was nobody in the water. The helicopter just crashed and there were no activities after that. And to me that was scary," she said.
Angel also described the sense of shock among other bystanders, with many left stunned by what they had just witnessed.
"People were crying, we were hugging each other like, oh my god, this just happened, this is real. We were in disbelief, we were just like, we wanted to help, but we didn't know how to help because this doesn't happen every day," she said.
The chopper, a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, is said to have split in two before it went down, according to local media reports.
The incident is the deadliest helicopter crash in the New York City area since 2018.
Witness recounts horrifying moments of deadly New York helicopter crash
Witness recounts horrifying moments of deadly New York helicopter crash
Witness recounts horrifying moments of deadly New York helicopter crash
