tragedy in mid-air. >> we heard a loud crash. >> a small plane collide ways tourist helicopter. >> it looked like half of the wing was missing and it was cork screwing into the river. we sought helicopter drop like a rock into the hudson. >> 350e78 along new york's hudson river watch in horror. >> like in the movie. it was turning. and then the head went down first, about three, four seconds later, i thought it was a wing of the helicopter, probably the rotor blade. >> within minute, divers koemd the murky water, but sadly,

mayor michael bloomberg delivers the bad news, there appear to be no survives. >> this has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission. >> what went wrong? we investigate right now on cnn. hello, everyone, i'm dom lemon. we're following breaking news right here on cnn. you're looking live right now on hudson river where divers and investigators are desperately looking for bodies an wreckage from a mid-air collision that happened noon eastern time. right now, nine people appear to be dead including a child aboard the plane. italian tourists on the helicopter. you can see, it is a clear sunny day, at the time of the crash, thousands of people were out and about, both in new york city and in new jersey. watching, stunned at what they were seeing with their very own eyes, a small plane and a tourist helicopter in death spiral into the dark deep waters of the of river. >> only thing i saws were a black helicopter went down. we were all watching it was like

in the movie, it was turning, then the head went down first. then about three, four seconds later, i thought was a wing of the helicopter but there is no wing for helicopter, probably the rotor blades. so if this is the head, i think it went down like this. so it was quick, yeah. >> what did you guys do next offer saw this? >> we all, three of us girls, we all called 911. i think it was probably busy, so it said leave a message. so that was a little bit funny, but very soon in about a minute, i just see like all the other helicopters and people coming for the rescue. so it was very quick. >> did you see a plane? did you see a plane? >> no, i did not see a plane. i didn't know there was a crash. i just thought it's probably a malfunction. >> did you them starting to pull people out of the water? >> i see a lot of people come and start trying to rescue.

lots of boats started to drive towards the helicopter. >> did you see people in the water? were there people swimming that immediate rescued? ? >> die not see that. i did not see a struggle or anything, but i see people try to come and help. >> where were you, golfing? >> chelsea pier. >> where were you exactly when you saw it? >> i was on level d or c. i think level d. we were golfing. chelsea pier golf club. >> tell me more about the rescue effort. you were are both red heading to the scene. i saw a lot of helicopters driven in both driving towards the scene trying to help. >> how high in the air was the helicopter when it was going straight down? >> i don't think i saw you a the whole thing. when i saw it, it took about -- i saw about six seconds of it. >> and it was straight, nose down? >> i think it was nose down, yeah. >> was it turning? >> i think it was turning, yeah.

>> your reaction when you saw it? you obviously had never seen anything like this? >> yeah, i was just very shocked. i think i was screaming for a few seconds. then two of us, we started calling 911. so probably a lot of people saw it, that's why the line was busy so then we saw the rescue boats, rescue helicopters, just went after like a minute. it was that quick. >> but month one swimming. >> i did not see it. >> any planes? >> i didn't see any planes. i saw some smoke like afterward. i didn't see any plane. >> they are searching that river between pier 40 and lower manhattan and hoboken, new jersey, the holland tunnel runs under the river close by. cnn's susan candiotti is going to join us from the banks of the hudson river in lower manhattan in just a minute, but first to get a perspective on this story, joining us is john wiley, a former airbus pilot with 19,000 hours. he is also kriblgti icontributi

tore business commercial aviation week, i should say. thank you very much for joining us. so you were explaining to me how the one plane has to give way to the other depending who is trying to pass who explain that to us. >> this is a vfr corridor, it's a see and avoid situation. the ruleses of the road is overtaking aircraft has to give way to the aircraft being overtaken. the problem that you've got is all aircraft have blind spots on them. if this aircraft is beginning to make a turn to the right to go down to the river, that's a low wing aircraft. that's going to obstruct his vision to his left. if the helicopter is in a turn also, it's going to obstruct his vision to the right t may be a blind spot for both the pilots. >> one more question, what i found was very interesting that if you have people on board a helicopter, usually, they're wearing seat belt, same thing on plane. this happened so quickly. once that happened, you said, once the rotor was hit, then what happened to that helicopter. >> well, the wroter is basically the flying or rotating wing on

the helicopter. you lose the rotor and it's no longer a flying machine, it would plummet immediately into the river. >> that river is very, very deep. so with the g force probably pushed that plane and helicopter right to the bochlt river. >> very quickly. it was a high impact crash. >> stick around, you're going to be joining us, guiding us through this story unfolding. beer going to be of it until we find out sclakt what happened. that is john wiley, she going to join us here throughout the afternoon on cnn. also noin joining me by phone is jim hall who is a former ntsb chairman. you heard mr. wiley saying about how this particular corridor operated. it's very little control here. most of it is by sight and also just by radio communications, this is not handled by air traffic control. >> that's correct. as the captain explained, it's

see and avoid. unfortunately it appears that in this situation, either for whatever reason, the aircraft did not -- they did not see one another. >> are there -- is there anything that needs to happen here? should this continue to operate as it has always operated or do you think changes should be made or is this something that was just unavoidable or not typical and unusual? >> well, of course, that's the purpose of the ntsb investigation. the board will look very closely at training, the experience of the pilot, the visual meteorology conditions at the time. and you will have to come with some conclusions. so it's certainly too early to tell, but that's the whole purpose of having an investigation is to try and determine if there are any changes that need to be made to

make the system safer. >> the reason i ask you that, it's a very heavily congested area, it is a dense area. you've got newark international airport, laguardia, kennedy airport, teterboro, onned a on and on, westchester airport. so you have a lot of airports in the area. i want you to listen to new york city's mayor michael bloomberg. then i want your comment on it. >> i think it's really any place you see a lot of traffic together, that's not oppopositi controlled, you have to be careful. that's not for me to prejudge whether anybody did anything right or wrong, the only definitive toons your questions, will come from the national transportation safety board. that's why air transportation is so safe because they don't jump to conclusions. they very carefully work to establish with a lot of investigation, what exactly went on. >> you heard him, he's basically saying what you said, mr. hall,

but just again to run down just how congested that area is. lag ward, teterboro, essex, greenwood, a list of about 20 airports in that area. depending on what the ntsb, should there be i don't know, more regulation or discipline in that particular area? >> well, certainly this event will be a wake-up call to the people that are flying in that area. but i do think we're going to have to wait for the results of the investigation to see if any additional restrictions or regulation are recommended by the board. >> all right. thank you very much for that, jim hall is a former ntsb chairman, he's joining us from chattanooga, tennessee, tonight, we really appreciate it. this story is unfolding as we are live here on the air tonight. so please bear with us.

this is a breaking news story. the details are coming in every single moment. what we're hearing though is nine people are believed to be dead. they are searching the hudson river from pier 40 to 14th street. i want to bring back in john wiley, who is a former airbus pilot with 19,000 hours of experience. i lived along the hudson river there, right near chelsea pier close to where that happened. we would watch the traffic going up and down that corridor. it's just like a highway. the planes going downtown travel to the right and the planes coming up would travel to the left. >> it's a highway in the sky. >> absolutely. and tons of traffic maybe busier than some streets in america. >> i sincerely appreciate mayor bloomberg having obviously a very cool head in this. you're not going to be able to legislate and regulate the risk out of life. there will no doubt be calls for closure of the vfr corridor.

as bloomberg said it's a great city. this is the big apple. the concept a lot of times is the general aviation file is just some little cowboy in his says nachlt i'm back in general aviation now and i see a lot of very responsible professional behavior. this is at big apple as i said, nobody is is going to jump on the vfr corridor in new york without doing a little bit of study. >> you're also talking about the exsbloeks that some people heard. what would that have been? >> as the airplane collided, some people have mentioned a white puff of smoke, that was probably one of the fuel tankses rupt churing and you've got mist coming out of it. >> and that water is very deep. it will take in time it. >> will take them a long time. >> to find the wreckage and at bodies. it's very deep and murky, the mayor said there's about two feet of visibility, they wanted to get the difrs out of that water as soon as at least before dark because they don't want to have a tragedy on top of a tragedy there. stand by with me, we'll go through the details of this and new information as it comes in.

an unfolding story out of new york city, we're working on getting every single debatail f you. our cnn i-reporters provide the first images of the scene many times. this shot was snapped immediately after it happened. you can see the helicopter hovering over the spot of the crash there. this is reminiscent of the hudson river thing landing with sully sullenberger not long ago. jim davidson also submitted quite a few photos. police and rescue crews quickly mobilize bringing all of their resources to bear on this scene. these shots were also taken from new jersey with the manhattan skyline as a back drop. the accident quickly attracted crowds to area piers as they watched the search and rescue efforts unfold in this area. again, we're follow iing breaki news on cnn, a small plane and a helicopter, tourist helicopter colliding right over the hudson river as many, many people

looked on. our susan candiotti is on the scene in lower manhattan. she's going to give us a report in just a moment from that scene. also if you witness it, or have any information on this crash and this collision, we want you to send it to us on the social networking sites. logon to twitter, facebook, ireport or myspace and we'll get it on the air for u same flat rate. boston. boise? same flat rate. alabama. alaska? with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. dude's good. dude's real good. dudes. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

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new york city, where investigators are looking for wreckage and bodies in the deep murky water of that river. there was a mid-air collision in new york city between a tourist helicopter and a small plane and the mayor is saying this, not survivab survivable. that's how he is describing that mid-air collision over the hudson river today. nine people including a child are believed to be dead after that small plane collided with the tourist helicopter plunging both into the rifr river near pier 4 o two bodies have been pulled from the water so far. right now, recovery crews are canvassing the river, swarming both banks, looking for more vi victims. let's go susan candiotti now, she has been on this story since it broke. she is going to start our live coverage from the banks of the hudson and lower manhattan. susan, what are you seeing? >> they're calling it a not survivable accident, but also probably the greatest tragedy on the hudson river involving a plane crash in modern day history.

we're talking about that midair collision as you pointed out. as we take a look at the recovery operation going on right now, there on the hudson river, where the mid-air collision happened after a small plane appeared to have run into the back of a silghtseeing helicopter. that is preliminary information according to officials. the pilot aboard that small plane was carrying two passenger, one of them a child. a sightseeing helicopter had a pilot and five italian tourists on board that took off from a helipad that went off on a sight seeing tour of manhattan as well as the statue of liberty. at that time, the plane appeared to be coming out of the northwest and some say went into the back of that helicopter. of course both planes-the

helicopter and small plane beginning to disintegrate and falling into the water. among the witness, we're learning about an off-duty new york city police pilot who was working for the very same sightseeing company involved in this crash. and new york city police commissioner ray telly talk ed about that. >> it was some information that a pilot for liberty tours happens to be an off-duty new york city police pilot, he was in the air for liberty, saw some of the events. and he faci facilitated the cal we were able to get will very quickly. >> apparently, according to authorities, that pilot may also have seen this accident about to happen. but apparently too late, too late to issue an kind of warnings. as you indicated, don, two of the nine victims have already

been recovered. possibly authorities say, from the helicopter wreck a but the conditions there are so murky underwater, the divers can only see about two feet in front of them. the depth of the river here, about 30 feet. again, commissioner kelly talking about how difficult it is to pull off this recovery operation. >> we know that the hudson river is an extremely difficult river to dive in, currents are very difficult, you have to contend with tides and the ability to see is very limited. two to three feet at most. so it's a difficult work environment. the mayor said we're very much concerned about diver's safety. >> mr. kelly has said the plan was to have four teams of divers literally work around the clock to see what kind of debris they can recover and of course also recover the victims from this

terrible accident. it would not surprise you to learn that the families of the italian tourists are receiving counseling, being provided by new york city. we don't have the names of any of the victims as yet, so we don't have any information about who was on board in particular the plane that took off from teterboro, new jersey. we have learned that the national transportation safety board is sending a so-called go team here to begin its investigation and they plan on holding a news conference once they get in place and have some news to report. >> susan candiotti, following this story for us. thank you, susan. we're continuing to follow all the breaking details on this story, this mid-air collision over the hudson river. standing by to help me here is john wiley, a former airbus pilot with 19,000 hours of experience, he's going to join us in a minute. we also have josh levs who is checking on the social network sites getting lots of

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he willo, everyone. i'm don lemon. you're looking live at the hudson river two divers are desperately looking for bodies and wreckage from a mid-air collision that happened at noon eastern time. right now, nine people appear ton dead including a child on board that plane and tourist helicopter. the sun is going down. at the time of this crash, people were out and about in both new york city and new jersey watching stunned at what they were seeing with their very own eyes. they couldn't believe t a small plane and a tourist helicopter in a death spiral into the dark, deep waters into the hudson river. we have john wiley who is a former airbus pilot standing by. we also have josh levs standing by checking on social immediate kw and susan candiotti is live at the scene of the crash on the hudson river. i'm going to go to josh now because he's keeping an eye on all the social networking sites. where you, our viewers, are helping tell this story of devastating collision. what are you hearing and seeing? >> we've been getting information from people on the

ground via twitter and facebook and keeps checking out, too, by the authorities. let's zoom in on the board. this is flicker you're looking at here. jason cohen was in touch via twitter. he took a lot of pictures of the afr ya today. one thing we keep hearing from people who are there is authorities responded very quickly. we see fire rescue boats. police boats. all these people keep telling us it was very rapid response. that says a very good thing about new york authorities and about preparedness in certain respects. i also want to close in on this picture he sent in. can we close way in? i don't know if you can see the tire down there, but i spoke early yes, you'll see it again tonight with a man who was driving his car that wh that tire landed in front of him, it's right along the hedge of the hudson river. it's right where the hudson river is, he had a feeling it might be from the plane. he believes it is from the plane. now what we're seeing in this picture from jason cohen and others is that police have

cordoned off that area looking at that. this right here is one of our latest i-reports that's just come in. i-reports have been some of the most important fophotos we've gotten all day. this is from a man who was on a bike path near the hudson river. take a look at this. you can see how people were just going about their day and then they've got all this traffic in the center of major roads in the search for survivors. at the time it was hope it would be a mission to find survivors. obviously the mayor has said since then, you can see people on this bike path, just going about their day, had no idea, heard the sound, massive change right there. dorngs i will also tell you, i know you're going don reading some of this, a lot of people have been writing on my twitter page and facebook page, we're thinking of these victim, we really feel from them. i know we'll be hearing that from you in a bit. >> i haven't had a chance to check my social network sites

yet. i want to turn quickly to john wiley who is a form er airbus pilot to talk about some of the things josh was talking about. the tire from the plane. you said there are going to be finding piece of the airplane and helicopter in other place. but because of how lightweight that plane was, lot of may have just disintegrated or the river is going to take it away. >> we're getting in the information is that the helicopter and airplane both broke up prior to impact. with these being relatively light vehicle. i would think the pa 32 is no more than a 3,000 or 4,000 pound airplane, the possibility of the river move iing parts of the tw crashed vehicles from the impact site is something they have to consider. >> stand by, we'll continue to check in with you. i want to go now with daniel rose, a military trained active private pilot who routinely flies the hudson river corridor. she a partner of a law firm, respected aviation firm.

they represent victims families, including the one in buffalo. dan joins us by phone. the vfr corps score one of the most jested in the country. tell us what it's like to three through that space. >> hi, don. it's very congested. you have to get on a special frequency that's designated for aircraft operating in that very narrow corridor. the reason you have to do that is because it's critical that you announce to everybody else on this special frequency exactly where you are, which way you're heading, what altitude you're at and what you intend to do. and that's because there's no air traffic control over that particular corridor. >> you have to announce to everyone around you. not just be concerned about yourself but everyone around you, instead of just checking in with one single stall place.

>> absolutely. you're looking out for yourself and everybody else and you have a duty to do that. and the most frequent users of that corridor, i think you'll see, is these helicopter tours or even the news radio helicopters or commuter helicopters that ferry passengers back and forth from some of the airports. they're operating there day in andy out. and they're very familiar with what needs to be done, what announcements have to be made. and really how you enter into this flow of traffic. general lirk the flow is northerly or southerly. if you're heading south, you're on the west side of the river, if you're heading north you're on the east side of the river. these helicopters that come in probably like this helicopter did at some point, have to figure out very carefully how to enter this flow of traffic. it's critical to maintaining

safe separation for all these aircra aircraft. >> it's not just what you said, commuter and tourist, you also have military helicopters an planes that go up and down that area and as you said, you have the news helicopter, news radio and television news hepts. it's a very congested area. listen, dan, can you stand by real quickly, i have some more questions for you, but the mayor of hoboken new jersey, don zimmer -- it's dawn not don zimmer. she's speaking out. we'll take that. >> -- that footage or any photographs that were taken. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> yeah, i mean i'm not going to -- i'll leave that to the ntsb, they're the authorities in this crisis and they let them give an update as to the debris. >> has anybody come forward with

any video or photos yet? >> at this point, that's why we're hoping to work with all of you. to get that word out, if anyone has video or photographs, it would be helpful. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> they can call the police station. 420-2100 and let us know. we'll get that information to the proper authorities. >> can you tell us how many bodies, if any, have been recovered so far? >> i'm not going to be the one to give details on that but just to say, obviously, all of hoboken is really thinking about those family members. impacted by this. okay? all right. so i think that's it for now. we're going to be having -- aga again, we're working with all the authorities, we're going to be having another briefing and so we'll come out and give a briefing. at this point, probably 6:30 that we'll give a briefing to the press. okay? thank you. we'll let you know. okay? thank you. >> all right, dawn zimmer, just

elected last week, the new mayor of hoboken, new jersey, you've got a bunch of little towns. hoboken, weehawken, jersey city, new york city, the financial district, lower manhattan. this happened right near pier 40. i heard the investigator and mayor say they believe the debris is anywhere from pier 40 which could be anywhere in the new york harbor all the way down that area up to 14th street and possibly up to maybe 23rd street. so it's a very congested area on the new jersey side, lot of little small towns there and people who use that area to get back and forth between manhattan to commute and also they use the helicopters in that area as well to commute to newark airport to kennedy airport to laguardia airport to tray to get people out to long island, people going out to the hamptons, whatever, so it's a very busy area when it comes to air travel. i want to bring dan rose back in.

thank you for staying with us again. this is completely unscripted because we're following every single detail. our producers are following the satellites and feeds. that's how we saw the mayor there. so as soon as we get new information, we'll bring it to you. let's talk about the frequency of those helicopters and the danger that poses, not just helicopter, airplanes as you can see, very congested area. >> well, actually it's probably the combination of the two that's the most potentially dangerous as we unfortunately saw here. >> so then why then is this not controlled by air traffic control? >> well, you know, it's a good question. it's probably too confined of an area and too much traffic for air traffic control to really monitor and regulate. and you know, in all honesty up to this point, it has certainly worked without an incident like this. there probably have been close

calls, but essentially, if pilots are doing what they're supposed do, that is talking on the right frequency, providing the right information and looking out for each other and particularly these helicopters that fly up and down, which is really the concern, entering this flow of traffic, if that's done properly, it can be done safely. it's too early to tell exactly what happened here. but i wouldn't go saying that this necessarily, that the answer to this question is having air traffic control monitor this corridor or had shut it down, i think we have to wait to see what happened. >> point well taken. thank you, dan rose. we appreciate it. you've just seen the newly elected mayor of hoboken, new jersey, asking the public or businesses or anyone in the area, the many, many high rises in the airy apartment buildings, if there is some video or pictures of this particular incident, she's asking to you call police in her area, you can

also call new york city police and they will gladly take your information and try to get your pictures and your video to try to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. we'll be joined by an eyewitness to this collision just seconds away. welcome to the now network. right now five co-workers are working from the road

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all right f you're just tuning in to cnn, nine people were killed today when a small plane and tourist helicopter collided over the hudson river in an yeah between pier 40 in lower manhattan and hoboken, new jersey. i-reporter robert wagner shot this photo from hoboken, new jersey, the object on the street is believed to be a tire from one of the aircraft. he also took this picture of a police boat as it patrolled for crash debris and possible bodies. that's a small area, three to four mile area if that. so we're looking at a very small area where this happened between new jersey and new york. when you say it happened in new jersey, new york, it's a very small area, a very dense area. this is john wiley joining me here on the set, henning us get through this. he's a former airbus pilot and contributing editor to aviation week magazine. he has lots of knowledge that

you're going to get here on cnn. first, we're going to turn to someone who saw this all happen. joining me on the phone is herman martin, he saw the crash as it was happening. it was in an area between lower manhattan and hoboken, new jersey, you're sitting by on the river, you're with your wife, you're from los angeles, you're are from vacation, correct? what did you see? >> he's not there. he can't hear us. until we can get him, let's talk about this. we were are talking about the area again, it's a very, when you say new jersey and where it happened in manhattan, it's actually a very small area, not a very small area, but not as big as one might think it. >> is a small area. because you have to, the vfr corridor we keep talking about, the river varies from maybe three quarters of a mile wide at its widest point to maybe a quarter of a mile widate most narrow point. so you don't have a whole lot of

room to maneuver. so there's got it be a fair amount if not a lot of discipline for people who have are going to be transiting this corridor. this is the big apple, you're not going to jump on this lightly. there are courses you can take on line or courses you can attend to be familiar with the vpr corridor here and as mr. rose so nicely pointed out, you'll self-announce. there's a frequency that everybody is supposed to be on. you'll say hudson river, piper alpha bravo southbound, george washington bridge. now everybody has an idea of where you are. but again, it's a see and avoid. the problem is if you can't see it, you can't avoid it. >> i'm getting this from someone who wrote into us and jacqui jeras passed this along. but the aviation community says the plane that crashed in the hudson river had a parachute like the cirru summit airplane. the founder got the idea after surviving a mid-air crash.

>> this does not have the parachute. one of the interesting or unfortunate events is that when you have a parachute, we've had a couple of the cirrus that have crashed, lost the engine or whatever, deployed the parachute, going into water because the landing gear will penetrate the water, the landing gear is not there to absorb the shock and people come out of the injury from going into the water with greater injuries than on land. >> we mentioned jacqui jeras though. if you're listening, i want to bring you in here. mr. wiley brings up a very good point. usually we think of weather being a factor, visibility, rain, snow, or some kind of inclement weather, weather may have been a factor in the sense that there was way more traffic out there. tourists wanted to be out flying, looking over the beautiful skyline of manhattan. >> that's a great day. we talk about ceiling and visibility unlimited.

it's a great day to fly, blue sky, light wind, city of new york. everybody is head southbound. the problem that you've got is as you're southbound everybody is looking to their left. if the airplane is coming up from the helicopter's right, again, you can't avoid what you don't see. >> jacqui jeras, it was certainly a beautiful day in new york city in that area, just clear, crisp, skies there. >> really great conditions, visibility was more than ten miles. you talk about the vfr, visual flight rules. you have to have great visibility in order for that to happen. there were some scattered clouds at different levels but not enough that it would impact flying conditions or visibility conditionings either. >> cnn's jacqui jeras, also john wiley, a former airbus pilot joining us here. we're hearing from i-reporters. our entire cnn team is on top of this, the very latest about that collision over the hudson river, just seconds away.

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we want to take you now live to new york's hudson river where divers and investigators are desperately looking for bodies and wreckage from mid-air collision that happened just about noon eastern time. right now, we're being told that nine people appear to be dead, that's according to new york city aesz mayor, including a child that was on board the plane and italian tourist on board that helicopter. you can see, we talked to our jacqui jeras about this. very clear day in new york city, very sunny at the time of that crash, where there were thousands of people who were out and about both in new york city and in new jersey and they were watching, stunned, as all of this went down. it happened before their very eyes, a small plane and a tourist helicopter in a spiral, right into the hudson river, deep into the waters of that river. meantime, there is some other news here to report here tonight on cnn. we're going to get to a lot of it in just a moment, but first, wasn't to tell you about fighting murder with music. with the soaring homicide rate, new orleans is still struggling after hurricane katrina and the

violence is sweeping up children as well. two murders this year involved kids who were just 14 years old. tonight's cnn hero is fighting hard to give children a way out and he's doing it with the power of music. >> music has always been with me. i love to play with two drum sticks in my hand. the legacy is really dying fast. life an katrina is hard for a kid, you have the violence, the drug life. i'm just tired of it. my aim is to get kids off the streets. my name is derrick tabb and i started a free mirvg program for the kids of new orleans. let's go, horns up. we do more than than just teach mus music, we offer transportation, instruments, i feed you so you're not hungry. we call it the no excuse policy. you have no excuse why you're not here. you don't have to have any experience.

we meet five days a week, year round. you're constantly learning something new, that's what keeps the kids coming back every day. >> i was getting in trouble, now when i'm here, i practice. when i'm at home i practice. you just changed my life. i love seeing it happen, just having fun. >> you have to keep teaching these kids this culture. i'm saving lives, i'm giving life. a whole dirchlt life of music. it's the chevy open house. and now, with the cash for clunkers program, a great deal gets even better. let us recycle your older vehicle, and you could

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to be dead. believed to be dead. that's after that small plane reportedly slammed into a tourist helicopter plunging both into the river right near pier 40. and as i've been talking here, it is a very small area. we'll talk about that. but two bodies have been pulled from the water so far. right now recovery crews are canvassing the water and swarming both banks of the river pulling out wreckage and looking for more victims here. john wiley is joining me, is he former airbus pilot and contributing editor to and i have of a yags magazine. we've ban hearing from some eyewitnesses, latering from our i-reporters, and we've also heard from the mayor of new york city, as well as the mayor of ho hokoken, new york. so, john wiley, we've talked about the weather and all this. we've talked about the two aircraft here especially the small aircraft that you said was

so light that getting some 6 of the debris from the aircraft will be very tough to do. initially they will get some of it, but probably never retrieve all of it. >> we won't have parts and pieces like a major airline or like sully's a-320 that went into the hudson. you're not going to have a cockpit voice recorder. possibly on the helicopter because it was an air taxi, they may be able to find that. but flight data roerd as far as a little airplane, that won't happen. >> so they'll have to piece this together. obviously you lettered the mayor of hobkoken saying if you have pictures, video, anything that can help us out, to call police. they're going to need as much of that debris as possible to try to determine exactly what happened, but certainly pictures and video can tell. now, what about -- what about radio traffic? is that recorded at all in. >> they're going to have radar

tracks of both the helicopter and small airplane. coming out, the fact that you're not talking to new york approach or laguardia approach or something like that does that necessarily mean that you're going to have your tran spoken der on. you will. they'll be able to place some of that data in a recreation and recreate the accident. >> if we can get a map of where this all happened so we can tell. so the plan plane was coming fr teterboro airport in reliation o this would be north of the holland tunnel, but this is going down river as you're looking at it here. >> exactly. laguardia will be in upper right, newark in the left, and teterboro in the left happened

side. he would have made a right turn going to a small field in ocean city, new jersey. i have to point out this is a very highly articula articulated area. 500 feet is where he would be low enough, but he's going to be coming down river going to this point and rely copthelicopter io be 500 feet or so looking at the city. >> the plane going down, right? if you're going down river, you're going south. and they want you to hug the new jersey shore line. if you're going up river, you'd be on the eastern side, but i don't know if you can hug the eastern side as much. >> highways in the sky. >> real quickly, before we go to thrk i want to say back in january 15th, 2009, u.s. air err

flight 1549, very close to this same pot th spot that that accident happened. this has nothing do with air traffic control, but it's very interesting that both accidents happened in almost the same spot. >> actually, those are always the exception to the rule and there are so many variables that we find out that in this case it winds up in tragedy, in sullen bu sullenberger's case, we heroics. >> we're talking about the coincidence here, both of these accidents happening very near the same spot here. thank you very much, john wiley. stay with us here. you've been helping us out. we'll also try to guide you through the accident to tell you how to happened, where the plane took off from and where it ended up in the helicopter. mean time, we want to check in

on some witnesses. this was witnessed by hundreds, possibly thousands of people. and a lot of our i-reporters are weighing in. i-reporters began sending photos. robert wagner send in photos. and nypd patrolled the waters searching for wreckage and possible bodies. wagner spotted what appeared it to be a tire in the street near the waterfront and the assumes is that this wheel is from one of those aircraft. but you can see the policeman, those are from our i roerts. and we certainly do appreciate our i-reporters. how did all of this happen? we'll take you through the time that this plane left teterboro airport until it crashed in to the hudson river. this is another. new total blueberry pomegranate cereal gives you 100% of the daily value of 12 essential vitamins and minerals.

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