One Person Dead After Helicopter Crash On Manhattan Skyscraper Roof

One person has died after a helicopter crash landed and burst into flames atop a high rise in New York City.

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The New York City Police Department states the aircraft made a “hard landing” on the AXA Equitable Centre in midtown Manhattan around 2pm local time.

The pilot was the only person aboard the helicopter at the time of the incident, Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kathleen Bergen told CNN.

The building was evacuated after the crash. Nobody else is thought to have been injured in the incident.

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The New York Fire Department has contained the fire.

Eyewitnesses have reported hearing the “too-low” helicopter passing overhead in the moments before the crash.

Footage taken in the vicinity of the building shows smoke rising from the building amid considerable rain and fog.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters that “preliminary information is that there was a helicopter that made a forced landing, emergency landing, or landed on the roof of the building for one reason or another.”

The AXA Equitable Centre does not have a helipad and the aircraft should not have been flying over Manhattan without approval from the LaGuardia Airport tower, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

He added there is no indication the crash was an act of terror.

CNN reports the helicopter was in the air for just 11 minutes before the crash. Police and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched investigations into the incident.

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