NEW YORK – Two more bodies were pulled from the Hudson river yesterday as divers searched for the other four victims of a collision between a small plane and a helicopter that killed nine people, including five Italian tourists.
US National Transportation Safety Board officials said it was too soon to speculate on what caused Saturday’s accident on a clear day over the Hudson river. They said that recovery of victims was now the top priority.
Authorities said there was no hope of finding survivors among the five Italian tourists and a pilot aboard the helicopter and the three people on the plane, which had taken off from nearby Teterboro airport in New Jersey.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg characterised the collision as “not survivable”. Photographs by witnesses showed the two aircraft missing parts and nosediving toward the water.
Italian media said the five tourists were from Italy’s Bologna area and included Fabio Gallazzi, his wife Tiziana Pedrone and their teenage son, Giacomo. Also killed were Michele Norelli and his teenage son Filippo, as well as Jeremy Clark, a New Jersey resident who was piloting the helicopter operated by Liberty Helicopter.
The crash occurred not far from the spot where a a US Airways jet with more than 150 people on board splashed down in the frigid Hudson river in January after apparently hitting a flock of geese. All on board survived. – (Reuters)