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More Bodies Found After Midair Collision

9 Are Killed After Small Plane, Helicopter Collide Over Hudson River

By GEOFF MULVIHILL

posted: 7 MINUTES AGO

comments: 825

filed under: National News

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HOBOKEN, N.J. (Aug. 9) - Divers lifted the wreckage of a helicopter from the murky Hudson River on Sunday, and police using sonar located the submerged small plane that had collided with it. Nine people died in the midair crash, and five bodies have been pulled from the water.

Investigators also were searching for pictures and video of Saturday's accident, which was seen by thousands out enjoying a beautiful summer day.

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'Dropped Like a Rock'

A tour helicopter and small plane plunged into the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey Saturday after colliding in the air. "There was a loud pop, almost like a car backfire," said Buzz Nahas, an eyewitnesss. "The helicopter dropped like a rock." Here, emergency workers look for debris.

Robert Mecea, AP

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Also See: Mom, Son Missed Doomed Copter

Nine people — three members of a Pennsylvania family in the private plane, five Italian tourists and a pilot from New Jersey in the Liberty Tours helicopter — died in Saturday's collision, the city's worst air disaster since a 2001 commercial jet crash in Queens that killed 265 people.

One of the Italian victims was a husband celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, a family friend said. His wife had stayed behind, but their 16-year-old son was also in the helicopter.

On Sunday morning, divers recovered a torso stuffed in the fuselage of the helicopter wreckage, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because all the bodies have not yet been recovered or identified.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a fifth body was also recovered Sunday.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crane pulled up the twisted wreckage of the helicopter from 30 feet of water.

New York City police said a sonar scanner found the small plane wreckage just north of the helicopter crash site in the water off of Hoboken. More plane wreckage was found farther out in the river under about 50 feet of water.

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National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Debbie Hersman said a nearby helicopter pilot saw the plane approaching the in-flight helicopter and tried to alert his fellow pilot. He radioed the doomed helicopter and said, "You have a fixed-wing behind you," but there was no response from the pilot, Hersman said.

The pilot then saw the plane's right wing clip the helicopter, and both aircraft split apart and fell into the river, she said.

The two aircraft went down just south of the stretch of river where a US Airways jet landed safely seven months ago. But this accident was, in Bloomberg's words, "unsurvivable."

The river's strong currents and poor visibility hampered recovery efforts.

"The current and undertow are very strong in the Hudson, plus the murky conditions underneath," Hoboken Police Capt. Anthony Romano said. The river bottom is full debris dumped from cruise and other ships decades ago, which makes the searching more difficult, he added.

Hersman said she did not know if there were black boxes or other recording devices on the two aircraft. Aircraft of their size are not required to have such equipment.

She said investigators were hoping to find photos and video of the accident that could help them determine what happened. A handful of photos have surfaced in the media, including at least one showing the moment of impact.

The helicopter company, Liberty Helicopters, released the name of the pilot in the crash: Jeremy Clarke, of Lanoka Harbor, N.J.

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Hudson Mid Air Collision

A small police boat, right, sits at an orange marker buoy in the Hudson River Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009, in Hoboken, N.J., after a helicopter and an airplane collided midair and fell into the river. A sightseeing helicopter carrying five Italian tourists and a small plane collided above the Hudson River on Saturday, sending debris into the water and forcing people on New Jersey's waterfront to scamper for cover. Authorities believe all nine people aboard the two aircraft were killed. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Betty Mallory, Clarke's former mother-in-law, said he received his training in Long Beach, Calif., and was a very capable pilot.

"I've flown with him, right after he had got his license," she said. "He was a very responsible, very safe pilot. I wouldn't have had any hesitation flying with him."

The plane's pilot was 60-year-old Steven Altman, of Ambler, Pa., the two law enforcement officials told the AP. Also in the plane were 49-year-old Daniel Altman, of Dresher, Pa.; and his 16-year-old son, Douglas, the officials said.

The five tourists were from the Bologna, Italy, area. The two officials identified them as Michele Norelli, 51; his son Filippo Norelli, 16; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; his wife, Tiziana Pedroni, 44; and their son Giacomo Gallazzi, 15.

"The trip was a gift from one of Norelli's sisters to mark the 25th anniversary of his marriage," Giovanni Leporati, a friend of the Norelli family, told the AP by phone. "The anniversary already happened but they took advantage of the August holidays and went."

The Italian group planned to travel from New York to Florida and then to Cancun, Mexico, but they have now decided to return home to Italy, law enforcement officials said.

The accident happened in a busy general aviation corridor over the river where pilots are generally free to pick their own route, as long as they stay under 1,000 feet and don't stray too close to Manhattan's skyscrapers.

The skies over the river are often filled with pleasure craft, buzzing by for a view of the Statue of Liberty.

Saturday's accident recalled another crash involving New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor, who died when their plane hit a skyscraper while flying a popular sightseeing route in 2006.

In January, the river was the scene of a spectacular aircraft landing after a US Airways flight taking off from LaGuardia Airport, in Queens, slammed into a flock of birds and lost power in both engines. The plane crash-landed in the river, and all 155 people on board were pulled to safety.

The NTSB has long expressed concern that federal safety oversight of helicopter tours isn't rigorous enough. The Federal Aviation Administration hasn't implemented more than a dozen NTSB recommendations aimed at improving the safety of the tours, called on-demand flight operations.

A report by the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general last month found that 109 people died in accidents involving on-demand flights in 2007 and 2008, while no one died in commercial airline accidents.

The plane, a Piper PA-32, was registered to LCA Partnership in Fort Washington, Pa. The address is shared by a real estate company run by Steven Altman.

Two police cars were stationed at driveway of the gated community of large single-family homes where Steven Altman lived and officers were blocking reporters.

Liberty Tours runs sightseeing excursions around the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Manhattan at costs ranging from $130 to about $1,000.

Two years ago, a Liberty helicopter fell 500 feet from the sky during a sightseeing trip. The pilot was credited with safely landing the chopper in the Hudson and helping evacuate her seven passengers.

In 1997, a rotor on one of its sightseeing helicopters clipped a Manhattan building, forcing an emergency landing. No one was hurt.

Associated Press writers David B. Caruso, Verena Dobnik, Samantha Gross, Suzanne Ma and Amy Westfeldt in New York City, Beth DeFalco in Hoboken, N.J., Samantha Henry in Teterboro, N.J., JoAnn Loviglio in Blue Bell, Pa., Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C., Colleen Long in Chicago and AP News researcher Julie Reed contributed to this report.

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Air Accidents in the News

A foot-long hole opened up in the passenger cabin of this Southwest Airlines plane on July 13, forcing the 737 aircraft to make an emergency landing in West Virginia. The cabin lost pressure, but none of the 131 people on board were injured. The flight was traveling from Nashville to Baltimore.

WSAZ

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-08 12:31:05

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Divers remove 4th victim from Hudson River
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ph9teen53404

04:00 PMAug 09 2009

Love and Charity is the gripping biographical account of Louise Hunter, a powerful woman of great faith. In her search for identity she was destined to walk a path filled with promise and pain. Being oblivious to her purpose in life, Louise began to realize that destiny beckoned her to a higher calling. Mysteriously, misfortune and mistakes transformed this obscure housewife and mother of twenty-one children into a woman of vision and valor. This poignant story recounts how despite ridicule and rejection, Mother Hunter established the Love and Charity Homeless Shelter relying wholly upon her faith, intuition and will to survive. From the depths of her own experiences and in the midst of mounting adversity, Louise reached out to help countless others less fortunate than herself. Now a legend in her own time, Louise Hunter emerges as one of America greatest humanitarians and champion for the cause of the socially disadvantaged. www.hunterfamily21.com

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RJones7957

03:54 PMAug 09 2009

I don't believe this accident and many previous accidents happened unless the same news people start, manage, conclude and report on the causes of them, a REAL investigation. We refuse to believe they happened for real until we know what and why they happened, making money on tragedies is not enough reason. You are just loosing viewers/customers and support. ANd you are damaging OUR WORLD. No poltical agenda riding on tragedies, please, you like monsters that feed on terror and emotions of the innocent and powerless. Be goood.... remember ET

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BawwnyFwank

03:43 PMAug 09 2009

Weave Pwesident Obama awone.........................

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obummaman

03:41 PMAug 09 2009

IT'S NOT THE INSURANCE COMPANYS GETTING RICH IT'S THE TRIAL LAWYERS AND THIER FRIVOLOUS LAW SUITS BUT WITH OBAMA IN BED WITH TRIAL LAWYERS THAT ASPECT WON'T CHANGE

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BawwnyFwank

03:38 PMAug 09 2009

This cwash in New York is teweble..................I pway foe the famwies............

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Uncledickierc

03:27 PMAug 09 2009

BULLETIN..JUST IN...Canadian citizens have just disavowed any knowledgeof the parrot guy. Must be an immigrant hiding in Canada to avoid INS.

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asalesguy

03:12 PMAug 09 2009

I apologize diam. I didn't understand your note. I appreicate your response.

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RJones7957

03:12 PMAug 09 2009

It is TIME TO FIND OUT why so many accidents happening worldwide. If you want a global world working well you, the people in charge and receiving salary for that job, need to do that, so the people qualified to create new bussiness and jobs can move around in safety when is needed. Notice that power people can travel with no problem, how do you expect for us to create what is not possible in a world poluted by frecuent and unusual accidents over which we have no control? Shall we the people take over communication and transportation so that we can rebuild a new and REAL WORLD? get out our way then!!!

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Topmind

03:11 PMAug 09 2009

Youze guys is all off agenda, yakkin' about our swarthy Savior.

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GIRL4DIAM

03:03 PMAug 09 2009

asalesguy 02:48 PMAug 09 2009 Girl4diam wrote, '-Asalesguy put up as many crosses as you wish there is no mention of "Seperation of Church or State" in the Constitution or the Bill of Right, nor an Amendement to the Bill of rights. ..The modern concept credited to John Locke, the phrase separation of church and state is traced to the letter written byJefferson; 1802 to the Danbury Baptists, in which he referred to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. The phrase was quoted by the Supreme Court in 1878, in a series of cases starting in 1948. This led to increased popular and political discussion of the concept.--"BLA BLA BLA "What are you talking about? I was on your side for freedom of religon? and I made my point only to get countless drivel. I'm not a democrat. and you proved my point again there's no mention of seperation of church and state in the constitution or the bill of rights. Now how's re-w...

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