Helicopter crashes into Midtown building, killing one

A helicopter crashed on top of a Midtown building this afternoon killing the aircraft’s pilot, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said. The helicopter crash landed on 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street at around 1:43 p.m., according to the NYPD.

A fire broke out in the building immediately after the crash landing, the FDNY said, but it was extinguished by 3 p.m., per the department.

In a news conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the helicopter took off from the 34th Street heliport and that the FBI and the NTSC are looking into the incident.

De Blasio added that no debris came down onto the street and that the fire that erupted was above the 50th story. He said the FDNY “did an extraordinary job today.”

A NYPD spokesperson told Curbed that the cause of the incident is still under investigation, but Mayor de Blasio said that there is currently “no indication that there was any terror nexus here.”

“If you’re a New Yorker you have a level of PTSD, right, from 9/11,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference. “And I remember that morning all too well—So as soon as you hear an aircraft hit a building, I think my mind goes where every New Yorker’s mind goes.”

These are the street closures related to the incident: