Birthday Helicopter Ride Ends in Tragedy
 |
October 5, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
A celebratory New York helicopter tour ended in tragedy on Tuesday, leaving one dead and another two in critical condition.
A woman has been confirmed dead and another two left in critical condition after the helicopter they were in crashed.
Sonia Marra, who was celebrating her 40th birthday with an aerial tour of New York, was killed yesterday after the helicopter she was in ran into difficulties shortly after take off, plunging into New York’s East River.
New York City’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, confirmed: “From what we know so far the pilot reported having trouble keeping aloft, tried to turn back, but crashed in the water just north of the landing pad.”
He added that emergency services arrived to see that the helicopter had sunk upside-down into the river and that by the time they had arrived there was “only the skids showing on the surface”.
Ms Marra was reportedly trapped inside the aircraft as it sank upside-down in the river and whilst the other passengers, including her partner, mother and step-father, managed to swim to shore. It took police divers over an hour and a half after the crash occurred to recover her body and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Whilst the pilot, Paul Dudley, and Ms Marra’s stepfather, Paul Nicholson, have both been released from hospital after being examined by doctors, the victim’s mother and partner are both currently said to be in a critical condition in New York’s Bellevue hospital, after one of the women suffered a cardiac arrest and the other a respiratory arrest, an NYPD spokesperson reported.
The cause of the crash is still unknown; however, witnesses reported the helicopter to be in some sort of mechanical distress before it crashed.
Joy Garnett, who saw the crash from a nearby dock, recalled: “I thought, ‘Is that some daredevil move?’…But it was obviously out of control. The body spun around at least two or three times, and then it went down.”
By Laura Beard
[Image courtesy of tours 10004]
