MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A helicopter crashed into the roof of a Midtown Manhattan high rise building Monday afternoon, killing one person and forcing hundreds of terrified workers to evacuate onto closed-down streets.
The aircraft was engulfed in flames while landing on the 752-foot AXA Equitable Building at 787 Seventh Avenue, between West 51st and 52nd streets, officials said. The crash killed the pilot.
“We’re 1 block south. 20 mins ago there was a loud sound like a too-low #helicopter & I looked up and saw sheet of flame on roof and then smoke,” one man said on Twitter.
Hank Ludwicki sprinted without shoes to Central Park after evacuating 787 Seventh Ave. during the middle of a yoga class in the basement of the building.
“Safety. Just run,” went through his head, he said.
Michaela Dudley, a lawyer at the firm Sidley Austin, told Patch that she was working in her office on the 20th floor when the helicopter crashed into the building. At first, she felt a “minor tremor,” then an evacuation order came over the PA system, she told Patch.
It took about 25 minutes to make it out of the building because the stairwell was packed with people trying to evacuate, Dudley said.
“We kept stopping and going,” she said. “People were getting kind of panicky because there wasn’t much information. You could hear people calling down to the lower floors, telling others to keep moving.”
A German relative of the Danish royal family, Prince Mario Max Schaumburg-Lippe, was having lunch in a nearby building when it was evacuated.
“It was very quiet,” said Schaumberg-Lippe. “Everyone was listening to the first responders of what to do.
“It was very scary. It was the one of the most scary moments of my life.”
Emergency officials closed several Midtown blocks, crippling traffic as the streets were lined with response vehicles and hundreds of people who emptied out of the surrounding buildings.
Police blocked off Seventh Avenue for several blocks south of West 57th Street and warned people to avoid the area.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said the craft took off from the 34th Street heliport 11 minutes before the crash, it was run by a private operator and was thought to be involved in “executive travel.” O’Neill said it’s likely that the helicopter was headed to it’s home base in Linden, NJ.
The police commissioner added that a temporary flight restriction had been in place because of bad weather and investigators are trying to figure out if the helicopter had permission to be in the air.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said no terrorism connection was suspected. But when New Yorkers heard that an aircraft had crashed into a Manhattan building, the connection to 9/11 was the first thing on their mind, some told Patch.
Luther Kane, 25, who lives nearby, was walking a couple blocks away when he heard a loud boom and then, “people started to freak out.” He and a crowd of people started running and calling 911.
“It was just like a lot,” Kane said. He thought, “I hope this not another 9/11.”
Meghan Thompson, 21, was working on Eighth Avenue in Midtown when the sound of sirens drowned out the usual office din. She described the experience as “terrifying.”
“No one was sure yet if it was an accident or an attack,” said Thompson. “You start to wonder if everyone is okay and safe, if anyone’s hurt or dead, then you worry about their families then it hits…. what if it was you?”
“My first thought was terrorist attack and that I need to go home where I’m safe.”
No other injuries were initially reported, the spokesman said. All visible fire near the crash site on the building’s roof was extinguished, but firefighters remained on scene to contain fuel leaking from the helicopter, an FDNY spokesman said.
The building is home to tenants including international bank BNP Paribas and the renowned French restaurant Le Bernardin.
Monday’s crash was the latest in a number of high-profile helicopter accidents in New York City.
In 2011, a woman was killed after a helicopter crashed into the East River just after it had taken off from the 34th street heliport, DNAinfo reported at the time.
The helicopter held five people including the pilot. Four were able to escape with only minor injuries, but a woman who was traveling with her parents was trapped inside the helicopter as it sank, said then Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In March 2018, another helicopter crashed into the East River, killing five passengers. The privately chartered aircraft was in the midst of a photo shoot when the pilot lost control and plunged into fifty feet of water.
Only last month, two passengers suffered non-life threatening injuries when a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River. The accident was caused by the helicopter’s pilot misjudging a landing pad, officials said.
Just last week, Uber announced plans to offer 6,200 helicopter flights between Manhattan and JFK Airport.
Patch’s Sydney Pereira and Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.