Helicopter passenger: Nothing wrong before crash
NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the midtown Manhattan helicopter crash (all times local):
2:50 p.m.
An air safety investigator says an earlier passenger in a helicopter that crashed into a Manhattan skyscraper, killing the pilot, said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Doug Brazy says the short flight Monday had taken the passenger from Westchester County to a Manhattan heliport. Then the pilot left by himself on a planned flight to Linden, New Jersey, after waiting and reviewing the weather.
Shortly after taking off, he crashed.
Brazy said Tuesday that investigators are trying to confirm whether the pilot tried to make radio calls.
The Monday crash killed Tim McCormack and shook the AXA Equitable building, sparked a fire and forced office workers to flee.
The helicopter was flying in a downpour with low visibility. Weather is one of the factors being investigated.
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1:30 p.m.
Investigators are working to determine what caused a helicopter to crash into the roof of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper.
The National Transportation Safety Board scheduled a briefing for Tuesday afternoon.
The Monday crash killed the pilot, Tim McCormack. The former fire chief in Clinton Corners, New York, was an experienced pilot.
The crash shook the 750-foot (229-meter) AXA Equitable building, sparked a fire and forced office workers to flee.
The helicopter was flying in a driving downpour with low cloud cover and in tightly controlled airspace.
A flight restriction in effect since President Donald Trump took office bans aircraft from flying below 3,000 feet (914 meters) within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius of Trump Tower, which is less than a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) from the crash site.
