Nine feared dead after NY mid-air collision

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Rescue boats search the area where a small airplane and helicopter collided over the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey. — AFP

NEW YORK, Aug 9 (AFP): Nine people were believed dead Sunday after a helicopter carrying Italian tourists crashed mid-air with a light airplane over New York's Hudson River.
"Three victims have been recovered," said Debbie Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, at a late Saturday press conference, adding that search operations had been suspended for the night.
Media reports said the bodies of two adults and one child had been pulled from the Hudson, hours after the helicopter carrying five tourists and a pilot collided with an airplane in full view of horrified residents.
Hersman said she could not confirm the identities of the three bodies, or which aircraft they had been aboard.
Earlier in the day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference that what had started as a rescue operation was being converted into a recovery operation, saying the incident was "not survivable."
"This is not going to have a happy ending," he said.
Hersman said divers had located the wreckage of the helicopter and were using sonar equipment to search for the plane before they shut down operations overnight.