When news broke of a helicopter crash in Manhattan, many New Yorkers were reminded of the most terrifying day of their lives. The all-clear is quickly given. But the case remains a mystery.
Nathan Hutton was at work. As always on Monday, as always from seven in the morning until – actually – seven in the evening. But at half past one the skyscraper in the center of Manhattan, on the 29th floor of which Hutton is located, shakes. “It felt like the whole building was moving. We thought it was something like an earthquake.”
Smoke can be seen from the top of a skyscraper in Manhattan. At least one person died when a helicopter crashed on a skyscraper in the New York borough of Manhattan. (Source: dpa)
The 59-year-old is standing in the constant rain just a few meters from the building on 7th Avenue in New York from which he has just fled. Hundreds have gathered here. You are immersed in a sea of blue lights from the emergency vehicles and look up at the facade into the dull gray of the low-hanging clouds. They obscure the view of the roof, on which a helicopter had just fallen. “We felt the impact,” says Hutton.
Sirens in Times Square
The unconfirmed reports that swept the Internet early Monday afternoon took New Yorkers back to a day that no one here will ever forget. The first tweets report of a plane or a helicopter crashing into a skyscraper.
The limousines with their tinted windows race through the checkerboard-like streets of Manhattan, the fire engines and ambulances with blaring sirens. Your destination is the office building that overlooks Times Square.
After a helicopter crash, many emergency services are on the street. (Source: Reuters)
The stairs down from the 29th floor seem like a tunnel to Nathan Hutton. “You smelled the smoke,” he says. Everyone got a little impatient and walked faster. “When we got into the lobby, we saw firefighters and police officers.” They would have shouted: “Everyone out”. Then he got scared.
“It’s extremely strange”
At the same time, 54 floors above him, on the roof of the building, the wreckage of a helicopter is burning. Rescuers find a body. According to later investigations, it is that of the pilot who had been flying for a real estate company for five years and was considered to be very experienced.
According to Police Chief James O’Neill, the plane had started just 11 minutes before the hard impact on 34th Street, not far away. What happened in those minutes makes the New York investigators ponder.
“It’s extremely strange,” says New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who interviewed CNN presenter Wolf Blitzer after an impromptu press conference in the pouring rain. Meanwhile, a video is making the rounds on the Internet showing a helicopter flying in a completely unpredictable manner. De Blasio says that according to his people’s knowledge, it is the accident helicopter.
“It just didn’t look like there was a mechanical problem on his route.” The city government has ruled out a terrorist attack, but it is possible that the pilot had a personal problem. Presidential candidate de Blasio says he doesn’t want to speculate, but he does: “It could have been something that affected his psyche or, you know, substances.”
No terrorist attack
In any case, it is certain that the pilot ultimately flew towards Midtown Manhattan on his dubious route. The center of the city with many skyscrapers and Times Square, which some here call the center of the world. The Trump Tower, which has been cordoned off extensively, is also not far. Any flight over this part of the city needs permission from La Guardia Airport – which the pilot apparently failed to obtain.
The Manhattan skyline. (Source: Reuters)
“Under other circumstances, the helicopter could have landed right in the middle of Times Square. Who knows how many people would have been lost,” says de Blasio. But in all probability it was not terror, he repeats that day like a mantra.
With good reason: “The minute I heard it – you know: something hits a building – you’re immediately worried it’s terror because we’ve been through it all. We feel all of this deeply and painfully from 9/11 . September. But no, that was something completely different.”
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