1 killed, 4 hurt in E. River chopper crash

A single-engine helicopter carrying four tourists crashed into the East River Tuesday, killing one passenger, injuring three others and the pilot, and setting off a harrowing search-and-rescue effort.

The Bell 206B Jet Ranger plunged into the swift-moving East River about 3:22 p.m. and quickly sank in about 40 feet of water moments after taking off from the heliport at East 34th Street, officials said.

"From what we know so far, the pilot reported having trouble keeping aloft, and he tried to turn back, but crashed into the water just north of the landing pad," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the heliport.

NYPD officials identified the pilot as Paul P. Dudley, who has a house in Southampton. The dead woman was identified as Sonia Marra, the daughter of two other passengers, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. The other victim was a friend of the family, Browne said.

Witnesses said the aircraft rose from the heliport and suddenly pitched toward the river before spinning out of control and slamming into the water.

Joseph Belez was watching from the riverfront and saw the crash.

"It was going up, and then all of a sudden it just spun itself and went down to the water," he told The Associated Press. "I was just watching it take off, and it was just all of a sudden spinning. It just went down. It was a shock. It really was."

Robert Dress, 36, of Kips Bay, had taken his 9-month-old son out to watch helicopters take off and land from the busy heliport when he saw the chopper crash.

"I thought I was going to see people bobbing up and down in the water. There was no one. . . . I didn't see anyone, then they just popped up."

Rescuers from the NYPD and the FDNY were on the scene within minutes.

NYPD Lt. Larry Serras, a Suffolk County resident, was with his team on a counterterrorism drill when they got the call.

Four of them, including Serras, jumped in -- uniforms and all -- while using flotation devices in the fast-moving river.

He said the devices made up for his lapse in judgment. "If I didn't have a flotation device I think things would have been a little different," Serras said.

Browne said Marra, who turned 40 this week, was found in the backseat of the chopper. Paul Nicholson, 71, was treated at New York University Medical Center and released. He is Marra's father, Browne said.

Harriet Nicholson, 60, Marra's mother, and Helen Tamaki, 43, a friend, were both listed in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital Center Tuesday night.

FDNY firefighter Robert Lopez, 39, of Mamaroneck, said he jumped off the bulkhead by the heliport and swam out to a man who was about 30 yards from the pier and 20 feet from the helicopter.

"He was in shock, distressed, saying there was somebody else in the helicopter still; 'Go get them,' " said Lopez, who is from Ladder Company 7 on East 29th Street in Manhattan.

The Nicholsons are British nationals who live in Portugal, The Associated Press reported. Marra also was British and Tamaki was Australian.

"It is our understanding that the passengers knew the pilot," Bloomberg said. "They were all friends."

Robert J. Hantman, who identified himself as Dudley's friend and attorney, said the pilot told him "he did everything he could do to save them."

Hantman said Dudley manages the Linden Municipal Airport in Linden, N.J., and owns Linden Airport Services Corp., also in Linden.

The downed helicopter was towed out of the East River shortly before 7 p.m. and placed onto an Army Corps of Engineers barge. The helicopter's top propeller appeared broken in half as the craft was placed on a truck and taken to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

MODEL BELL 206B

Seats: 5

Weight: Up to 12,499 pounds

Speed: 112 mph

Manufactured: 1976

Fuselage length: 31 feet, 2 inches

Height: 9 feet, 6 1 / 2 inches

CRASHES INVOLVING BELL 206B

July 23, 2003: A New Jersey couple and three others died when a copter crashed into the side of a dormant volcano on the island of Kauai.

March 10, 2005: Three people were killed when a U.S. Forest Service helicopter crashed near Lufkin, Texas.

Jan. 5, 2010: Three biologists with the California Department of Fish and Game and a pilot died when the copter hit a power line south of Yosemite National Park.

Oct. 5, 2011: One woman dies and four are injured when a copter plunges into the East River.