fox news. all members of one family out on a boat sightseeing and thankful that you chose not to take that helicopter ride. >> julie: thank you very much for sharing the pictures. they are really incredible. and it was like the movie because people coming to new york city and they know a lot of movies are from here. tragedy on the hudson could be the title. this was not a movie, certainly a tragic thing to happen. thanks for talking to us. >> gregg: all right. we want to set the scene right now. 29 minutes after 5:00 o'clock east coast time. it has been a horrible day because of this tragedy on the hudson and they are still out there. they are searching for bodies, seven of which they hope to recover because of this midair collision. we want to tell you also that because the two-hour business

block was preempted for this breaking news, this is go to air tomorrow, the business block, sunday, august 9, from 2:00 o'clock to 4:00 o'clock eastern time. so if you missed your business picks and there are a great many people who are looking forward to that, you can get it tomorrow, 2:00 o'clock to 4:00 o'clock east coast time. fox news business block. continuing now with this fox news alert, i'm gregg jarrett along with julie banderas. >> a tour of the new york city skyline touring tragic for a group of tourists today. >> a helicopter carrying five italians crashed midair with a single engine plane over the hudson river right between manhattan and new jersey this afternoon. according to the faa, the plane was carrying three people, including a child. we do not have an age. nine people in all believed to be dead. witnesses of the accident saying they saw the helicopter crashing into the river.

recovery teams scouring the water for wreckage and for the victims. the ntsb has an investigation team on the scene. >> new york city mayor bloomberg saying the events will not have a happy ending. we have continuing coverage on fox news with our reporters live on the scene and eyewitness accounts. first, don zimmer is the mayor of hoe bow ken, new jersey. thank you for talking to us. >> mayor, what can you tell us, what have you learned from authorities and what have you been told? >> apparently we do not have the mayor of hoboken. we can tell you what the mayor of new york city said. mayor bloomberg held a news conference and he almost immediately said that this is a tragedy. it will not and does not have a happy ending. he confirmed the worst fears, that there were no survivors of

this midair collision that happened shortly after noon east coast time. he calls it not survivable. he repeated that again. he said there was a piper saratoga that took off from teterboro airport, three people on board, including a child. and it was heading over the corridor here, visual flight rules in the busy hudson corridor and it collided with a tourist helicopter with five italian tourists on board and a pilot and then almost immediately, the mayor said, the plane ran into the backside of the chopper. it would appear that the exclusive pictures of that midair collision which fox just obtained from a family, confirms that fact and we could not tell and so far, nobody has been able to determine whether the plane was ascending or descending.

but there are blind spots for both the chopper and light wing, fixed wing plane such as this. >> the rescue mission is now a recovery operation, meaning when you go from search and rescue, that is assuming there are survivors. it is assumed there are no survivor, in other words, it is now a search and recovery. crews on the hudson river trying to find the bodies on the hudson river there. these exclusive pictures that we showed you moments ago, the very first pictures seen of the midair crash. the first images there on the top of the screen, you see the white plane there missing one of its wings. the plane clipped that helicopter. it is believed perhaps that the plane came from behind and above the helicopter before clipping that helicopter, both of these aircraft then dropped like a stone, according to some witnesses. >> there is the crash are flash. >> that is a flash from the aircraft. one of our witnesses we had here on the phone telling us that within moments, within seconds,

the debris was gone. it went under water. >> especially the chopper. there would have been very little that would have allowed it to float, unlike the intact u.s. airways plane seven months ago when 155 people on board, which was designed to float, at least for a brief while, and that, of course, attributed to all of the lives being saved. but here, as the mayor said, this was not survivable. or a veteran pilot, almost immediately discounted the early report that there was one survivor that was rescued from the water. he sensed that was absolutely doubtful and, of course, john was correct. >> we have rose mary mackie, the chief external affairs office for the red cross joining us on the phone. do we have you? >> i'm here. >> thank you so much. talk to us about where your role

stands at this point, assuming there are no survivors. what does the red cross do? >> the red cross is the volunteer organization that works with the office of emergency management and other agencies to make sure that the families are well -- the families of the -- people involved in the crash are well taken care of. we have, at the mayor's request, the office of emergency management, opened a reception center here at our headquarters for the red cross on the west side. we have our mental health counselors who are volunteers working with them just to make sure they're comfortable while this is still going on. additionally, we are providing support for the first responders who are down at the pier as you just said in your report. >> i understand from you that

when you spoke with one of our people, that a family member was originally on the pier. >> they were, some of the family members were at the pier where the helicopter had taken off and it's those family members who are at the reception center. >> oh, my goodness. what you're saying is these family members actually witnessed their loved ones? >> i can't tell you that. i wasn't there. there are waiting areas, i think -- i've never taken one of these sight seeing tour, but i believe they were probably sitting in a waiting area. i don't know that they were watching it. >> we're going to assume the family members you're speaking of were of the passengers on the helicopter, considering the plane came from teterboro airport in new jersey. in other words, the five italian passengers on board that helicopter were traveling with family and only five of them

boarded the helicopter and the rest remained. do you know how many family members they were traveling with? >> you know what, i really do not have that information. i certainly haven't been given a count. i just know that the family members are here at our headquarters in our reception center. >> for those viewers, it's near the top of the hour who are joining us, we want to describe what has happened today. it's been an awful day in new york city, the hudson river in particular, a sight seeing helicopter carrying five italian tourists colliding with a small plane above the hudson river, sending debris into the water, frightening a great many people, forcing folks on the new jersey side to scamper for cover. we talked to one gentleman, an eyewitness, who narrowly avoided one of the tires that landed in the road, as he was driving into hoboken. authorities believe all nine people on board the two aircraft

were killed, perhaps instantly. mayor michael bloomberg came to the cameras a couple of hours after the incident, calling this not survivable. it happened just after noon. it was seen by hundreds if not thousands of people who were in and out enjoying a crystal clear summer day which invites the question, how in the world could these two aircraft have not seen each other? well, there is the exclusive photograph literally a second, maybe a half second after the collision. you can clearly see the right wing of the piper saratoga has been sheared off. and you can't even see it in the picture and the plane, of course, is heading down-to-earth. the chopper already falling and five italian tourists on board, including the pilot. >> those pictures are really extraordinary.

i mean, when you look at the picture, you think, oh, my god, what is it that i'm seeing? now that we've been telling you exactly what happened, it's really hard to believe unless you actually see these photos and these photos were brought to us by a family from canada that happened to be visiting new york city for the very first time. they were on board one of the liberty cruise lines where they say some 600 passengers actually saw the same thing they did. looking up in the air, they took pictures of what appeared to be a plane and a helicopter very close to one another and then they witnessed this and screams and cries, you can imagine, on board that ferry where their purpose for being on that ferry today was to view the statue of liberty and what they ended up seeing, obviously a lot more. >> terrible crash and there is a splash into the water of the two aircraft. one witness joins us now on the telephone. she was on 10th avenue having lunch, didn't see the moment of impact -- but did see

the helicopter whirling around and called 911. describe what you heard and saw. >> again, i didn't hear anything, but as i was sitting there, i happened to look up and i realized that there was a helicopter obviously in distress, making unnatural movements. it did odd somersaults and all of a sudden, took a nose dive down and parts of the propeller, bits and pieces were still trailering and floating above the body of the helicopter which was going into the ocean. >> you saw the helicopter take a nose dive, which reminds me of mayor bloomberg's news conference where he said sadly it appears that this is not survivable. when you saw that helicopter go down, were you thinking the same thing? >> absolutely. just by the damage of it and -- how fast it was moving and it was like a rocket. literally -- i was shocked if

somebody survived that. >> can you estimate the altitude, in other words, how far did it fall into the hudson? >> it would be hard for me to say. i was a block and a half off the hudson. i really couldn't. >> you didn't hear anything. what made you look up? >> it's strange, a bunch of people, when i ran to the pier and i talked to people, nobody had seemed to hear anything and nobody saw like a plume of smoke or fire or anything. they just saw the crash going down. kind of yeary. >> what's interesting, and i think the reason for that being is that you were on the manhattan side and those who actually heard the loud boom, they said it almost sounded like a really loud fireworks of some sort, they were closer to the new jersey side. so the collision happened on the new jersey side and they were heading east. new jersey obviously west of us on the hudson river and that's why maybe you didn't hear anything. >> i immediately -- just what was left of the propeller slowly

floating down into the water after the crash had already landed. obviously i ran right over to the pier. i think i was one of the first people there before emergency responded. as soon as they did, the guys were suiting up in their dive gear to look for survivor. >> almost instant stainious response by the emergency responders? >> absolutely. they were wonderful. they were there in a heartbeat. they secured the scene and got everybody back. it was a great response time. >> 911 obviously was jammed. when you did call 911, what were you getting? what was the signal? because that's interesting, when there is an emergency in new york city, our services should be able to handle a large volume of phone calls. what did you receive when you called? >> immediately i got something that sounded like a fax, like

the sound when you send a fax. so i tried again, got nothing. i tried to use a land line and finally the operator said they're getting flooded with calls. >> it is a saturday. people other than us, not working. they're out with their families, they're enjoying a beautiful crystal clear day and there must have been -- i would estimate there could be thousands of people who literally saw this thing happen or heard it happen or saw the aftermath and immediately jammed 911 with emergency calls. anything else to add? >> no. i think i heard you everything i know. >> it's pretty emotional for you to watch this and realize that you were witnessing nine people lost their lives. >> yeah. my instinct immediately was to go over, i don't know what i was thinking, but i wanted to run there to help. but obviously it was so far away, there was nothing i could do. i was hoping they were okay. but from the looks of it -- when i got there, there wasn't like

there was anything on the water. it seemed like it immediately went under. >> that's what most witnesses said. thank you very much for talking to us. she was having lunch on 10th avenue at the time of this crash. we have coast guard who came from the scene. he joins us on the phone. thank you for talking to us. what progress have you made on the water since we last spoke about an hour ago? >> since we last spoke, we expanded our search a little bit. it's from the lincoln tunnel down to south port bay on 7 1/2 mile search zone. we currently have just over 70 personnel, four boats and one helicopter involved in the search and recovery. >> david, why did you expand the search, is that because of the current? >> yes. current right now is 2 knots and i want to correct before. i said it was 4. it almost wasn't moving at the time of the accident. >> when you talk about a 7-mile

span, in the suburb 7 miles is nothing. in the river, seven miles is a long distance. that's almost the entire length of manhattan itself. when you start at seven miles, are you starting at 14th street north and then how far south is your search. >> we actually started -- we've expanded it. right now, 7 1/2 miles long which is up by the lincoln tunnel to new jersey. >> do you expect the current to increase? >> no, we don't. the current probably will remain the same. >> will it shift? >> eventually it will, but right now that's not -- they're not looking -- that's not affecting anything they're doing right now. >> how about the visibility in the water, which has for years, if not decade, been described as sort of muddy and murky and so forth. how difficult does that make this. >> right now we have a lot of

daylight left. it's not too difficult. i know it will get more difficult as night comes. >> the mayor described the water visibility as two to three feet. >> our guys are mainly trained for looking for stuff on the surface, whether it be debris or bodies. so they're not going to be looking underneath the water. they're look for surface stuff, as well as a helicopter in the air. >> what's the plan for the night and from this point forward? you have three hours left of daylight. what happens come sundown? >> the plan is just to continue searching. we don't have is a plan for night. but they are working on one right now in the command center in coordination with the rest of the agencies here in new york. so once we get that, we can give that to you. >> all right. david, thank you so much for being with us. we surely appreciate the information. >> you're welcome. >> keep us updated as things change and you get additional information to share. >> the question so many are asking now is how today's tragedy over the hudson river

could happen. we'll be speaking to someone who is license to do fly planes and helicopters next. >> the fire department and the t.d. have divers and everything is being done. i think it's fair to say that this has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission. and that probably was what we could have started out with the instant it happened.

there is the exclusive photograph of essentially the moment of impact, or at least a fraction of a second afterward when a plane carrying three

people, including a child, potentially rear-ended a helicopter tourist aircraft that was carrying five italian tourists on board. everybody, nine in all, died. the search is on. two bodies have been recovered. seven are still missing. joining us on the telephone is dawn zimmer, the mayor of hoboken, new jersey. mayor, what have you learned? >> basically i just heard someone say that i think all of hoboken, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the friends of the victims in this crisis and this tragedy and that's what we're thinking about. right now we're focused on making sure that the pier area is cleared of residents. we're trying to work as closely as possible with the faa that is on site right now and the ntsb will be arriving shortly and taking over this investigation.

but we want to make sure we're working with them to recover the debris, making sure the residents are not removing any debris. we want to support the investigation. >> mayor zimmer, how do you do that? i understand a tire from one of the aircraft fell in front of a viewer who we had on the phone moments ago, that witnessed part of the debris fall in new jersey. i would imagine you have so many witnesses out there in new jersey, how do you find them all? how do you get in contact with them all, because witnesses will provide a lot of information as to the moments that led up to this crash to potentially finds answers. >> we're working with many agencies that are here on site and mr. turner is here, heading up the unified command center that we have set up right here where the planes went down. so we're coordinating with them. we make sure that -- there have

been ten people, hoboken residents who have been interviewed and given statements as to what they saw when this happened. we're also trying to get the message out, if anyone possibly took video, that would be extremely helpful to the investigation. at this point, we don't have any information on that. >> with debris falling to the ground on your side of the hudson river, anybody in hoboken that you're aware of on the ground that was injured? >> thankfully, i can report that no one has been injured. no one was injured at all. >> what kind of debris beyond the tire, a photograph of which we've shown our viewers, what kind of debris fell, do you know? >> i think i'll hold off from making a statement as to that. i just know that there is debris that has fallen in hoboken and i'm going to leave it at that and being carefully recovered to be part of the investigation.

>> is that tire still on the road? we showed a picture of a tire. do we know where it came from? did it come from the plane? >> obviously it came from the plane -- >> at this point, i can't give any details as to exactly where it came from. it's all under investigation. as i said, the ntsb will be arriving shortly and taking over the management of this and looking at all of the debris that is in hoboken. >> dawn zimmer, mayor of hoboken, thank you very much. >> they're looking for video essentially. they've gotten a lot of pictures. we got exclusive pictures here on fox of three canadian tourists who were on the liberty cruise line when they saw what you're looking at right now. they saw this. they snapped the pictures and there you see the plane missing one of its wings. what they need, the ntsb, and investigators will need pictures

and video. we would like to help, too, if you have any pictures or video that you would like to share with us and then we will get it to the proper authorities, you can go to you report at fox news.com or send them to us on twitter at twitter.com/julie banderas. it is amazing how many people witnessed this thing and how many people took pictures and video and you would not believe how helpful those pictures and video are to investigators. >> there is the dramatic shot of the horrible, fatal collision, midair between a tourist chopper and a plane. it had three people on board, including a child and yet, we have not been told the age of that child. it left teterboro and we understand that it was heading toward ocean city, new jersey, at least that was their flight

plan that was registered at teterboro. we heard from the mayor of hoboken and the mayor of new york city. we just received a statement from governor david patterson, which essentially -- of new york, which essentially reiterates what mayor bloomberg said several hours ago. he also says -- this is a quote -- we will await its reporting recommendations, the ntsb reporting recommendations as to whether additional safety measures can be taken to prevent future tragedies like the one you're looking at right there of this exclusive photograph that we have sadly witnessed today. people should know that, first of all, generally the aircraft, there are no black boxes. that's not what they're searching for when they're looking for the wreckage. the wreckage itself may speak volumes of what happened. but they are looking for transponders, which are supposed to be outfitted on many of the general aviation aircraft.

visual flight rules are generally required here on this busy hudson corridor, which of course, pose has great many problems. we're going to talk to several experts about that. but it was a -- it started out as a pleasant sightseeing trip over new york's hudson river. >> and obviously it ended in tragedy today. you see the pictures of the aftermath. what happened in the moments before a deadly midair collision? we got eyewitness accounts and all the very latest from the scene of this developing story.

sad to say that this has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission and that probably was what we could have started out with the instant it happened. there is some evidence from eyewitnesses that one of the wings of the airplane was severed -- or separated, probably severed by the rotors of the helicopter, but we won't know until the ntsb does their investigation. there were a number of eyewitnesses who saw the crash. it would appear that the airplane ran into the back, side of the helicopter. the airplane we think took off from teterboro and had on board a pilot and two passengers, one a child. we do not have the names or ages or where they come from. and on the helicopter, there were five italian tourists and a

pilot. the police department has sent some of their community affairs unit and the mayor's office, community affairs, both are with the families of the italian tourists who had taken off from 30th street and are providing counseling. they don't speak english, so we have italian speakers there. those on the deck of the west 30th street, said he saw the airplane and grabbed his microphone and tried to tell the pilot of the helicopter that got hit. but whether the pilot heard it, whether he was on the right frequency, it could have been an optical illusion, turns out it was not an optical illusion. we will, over the next hours, our focus is making sure our divers are safe.

>> that was mire michael bloomberg. what he had to say was the plane ran into the backside of the chopper. so what are the risks of these helicopter tours? is there a better way to monitor the air corridor over the hudson and east river? joining us is a pilot, dr. bob, a physician also. bob, what do you think happened here? >> i have flown that corridor probably 400 times. it's very narrow. just the width of the river. it is a very low, 1100 feet. you're 250 miles an hour. you have helicopters, aircraft. the situation like this, i've seen this, you have a helicopter that may be leaving the river, ascending. of course. the helicopter has its rotors on top. then you have a airplane like this that has the low wing.

so it's not looking down through its wing. the chopper isn't looking up through its wing and you have blind spots on both of these. when the governor said we'll see what the recommendations the ntsb has in the future, i think he knows that this is a very dangerous corridor. it's taking high speed traffic at 100 miles an hour going down a little country lane. >> it's interesting, you pointed out that the mayor seemed frustrated over the rules or lack thereof of the air traffic over the hudson river, the east river and the new york harbor. have you seen the exclusive photos that we're airing on fox? >> i have not seen the photos yet. no, i'm driving to the airport right now to go. >> they're pretty hard to believe. if i could describe to you and neighbor you could sort of digest what you think perhaps it is we're we're looking at here. right now we're looking at the

plane where its right wing is gone. it was clipped off after it ran into the helicopter. witnesses say that it appeared as if the plane that was descending, in other words, the helicopter was beneath it, why 12 miles away from teterboro airport would you believe, if that was the case, the plane was flying above the helicopter, if it was coming down, perhaps for a closer look? perhaps for engine failure? what reason would it have to be descending 12 miles away from the airport? >> here is what happens. this corridor has 1100 feet you're allowed to go. it's hard for a pilot who may be ascending or descending. many of us have a device that will binge if there is traffic around. he could have been descending if there was an emergency. it's the nature of it. there could be 20 or 30 small airplanes, helicopters. i actually came out of teterboro

once and there was a port authority helicopters taking off from the river and i had him on my scope. he didn't have me. he thought i was gog hit him. this was one of the port authorities' own helicopters. it's a potentially very dangerous place. there should be communication with the air traffic controller. air traffic control usually will block you. they don't have the time to be able to rush these small airplanes and they don't have specific altitudes. i would have the helicopters that maybe go 400 feet. we need some distance between them. >> i put that question to bob francis, former vice chair of the ntsb. i said, shouldn't there be a ceiling for the choppers and a floor for the fixed wing which flies faster so that the two don't collide?

>> he said well. then what do you do about the planes descending and they have to get up of a a certain level. how would you respond to that? >> it's an interesting problem. remember teterboro is still probably six miles from the river. so you should be able to ascend. you can simply tell the tower that they must instruct them to be at a certain height. hot day like this, a plane, couple passengers in there, it could be struggling to get to 1,000 feet by the time it gets to the river. there is no one watching out for you. it's a tough place to fly. >> i'm glad you brought that up because i was thinking of that earlier. teterboro airport is so close to new york city and there have been many accidents where arthritis are taking off from new jersey and they're heading toward new york city and considering all the air traffic over manhattan, lower manhattan specifically, at what point --

do you think there is a possibility where teterboro airport gets moved further away from the city because the plane that fly out of teterboro into new york city are pretty much interfering with what is already jammed traffic space? >> that's an interesting point. i fly from new york to washington. i'll go down that corridor. most of the aircraft that comes out of teterboro will fly at a high altitude. i must go to 6,000 feet immediately before they'll do anything with me. the real trouble is this, after i get my clearance at teterboro, they'll give me this code on my spanned responder, which might say 3214. then attempt to pass me off to new york tower. they're busy. oftentimes they'll say, squat 1200, which means you're on your own. have a nice day. so even the pilot who is careful

can end up in a situation where no one is watching him or her flying out there. so i think what's got to happen and will likely happen out of this is that airplanes are going to have to talk to air traffic control. they're going to have to be on the code. this is done right now. if you go into washington, d.c., any of those airports, well outside of that air space, you have to have a flight plan, they want you out and the million dollars question is, new york city, why do they have those complex rules for washington and nothing for new york city? >> bob, final question, i know you're in your car heading to the airplane right now. clearly it is infrequent when there is conversation with air traffic control, air to air frequency is not mandatory, which means the busy corridor relies entirely on the visual flight rules. so visual flight rules, you're flying with your eyes.

and if your aircraft, as you've described it, has blind spots, isn't it inexorable there will be a collision? >> i think that's the million dollars question. it's a great question. i have a device that tells me about other airplanes around me. you know what, every single one of those airplanes i would hit if i didn't have this device. there are plenty of spots. imagine you're the helicopter pilot. you can't see behind you if you don't have any kind of window there, no device. there is someone coming from behind and this airplane was descending, this particular piper aircraft has a low wing, which means that if you're descending, you're not looking through the window, so they have blind spots. i think it's a recipe for disaster, as we saw this afternoon. >> i think it's important to note that this sort of thing is very rare when it comes to a commercial airline because

you're talking about commercial airlines that fly under instrument fly rules which means there is an air traffic controller watching each flight and in this case, where you have vfr, you're not being watched by anyone. we don't want to scare people boarding commercial airplanes today in thinking, oh, my god, could this happen to me? the air traffic control situation between these private small planes and these tourist planes and these helicopters is much different than commercial airplanes. >> it's a great point. remember the crash in san diego when the small airplane did go into a commercial aircraft? after that point, every single major airport in the country had to file a tsa, terminal control area that had tightly protected air space where you have a code. when you take out of la guardia, you're flying to a high altitude and almost protected from this traffic. in this situation, you have a myriad number of different

aircraft and you have the worst possible mix of helicopters with fixed wing aircraft and nobody watching them. >> all right. dr. bob, thank you so much for joining us. getting new information, this time coming from the new york police commissioner. officials say a pilot on the ground tried to warn the small plane and the tour helicopter that they appeared to be on a collision course and that warning came just moments before they crashed over the hudson river. new york city police commissioner saying another tour pilot at the heliport saw the plane flying toward the chopper, tried to radio to alert both pilots. the warning either wasn't heard or just didn't happen in time. there you see the aftermath. they've been searching on the river, they are gathering on the river front. the red cross is there because family members of the five italian tourists who lost their

lives were actually there at the heliport. unclear whether they were waiting for their turn or their relatives to return. but nine people have been killed, including a child. >> we have more details coming into the news room. we have new eyewitness accounts as well. and those exclusive photos that we've been showing you of the moment of the impact of the tragic midair collision over new york hudson river, continuing coverage in three minutes.

witnesses say the airplane appeared to lose control as it sank to the left and struck the helicopter. these exclusive photos shot by three tourists visiting from canada in the new york harbor today. the plane missing its left wing after it clipped that helicopter, both crashing down into the hudson river. all nine people are presumed dead right now. search and recovery efforts are underway. laura engle is live in new jersey. what are you hearing from witnesses? we spoke with the mayor moments ago and they have some ten witnesses who are in the investigation. >> that's right. they are still looking for more eyewitnesses. not only to come forward, but possibly share any videotape or pictures. in this new world where everybody has an i phone or blackberry with cameras, they're hoping that people were able to capture some of these last moments in the sky as this plane

crash happened over the hudson river. one of the questions i was asking the investigators here on the shores of the hudson river on the hoboken side of the river is, are there cameras and surveillance cameras, perhaps one of those caught some of this action. they say those cameras are not actually pointed out over the water. so therefore, they don't believe they have any videotape of that. they're relying on citizens to come forward and help. one of the eyewitnesses is this 12-year-old. what's your name? >> marina. >> where were you when this happened? >> playing soccer. >> that's just behind us. as we look at the crash scene over our shoulder, very close. what did you see? >> i saw the helicopter and the plane collide and the proceed polar from the helicopter just completely flew off and the wing from the plane broke off and five seconds after the collision, the helicopter fell straight into the water head first. >> what went through your mind? >> it was pretty shocking and

unbelievable. kind of like it came out of a movie. so surreal. >> a lot of people that i've been talking to here today only saw the helicopter. i guess maybe the plane may have disappeared first. you actually saw both. you say that you saw it break apart? >> yeah. i saw the helicopter first break apart. the propeller fell on the helicopter while it was going under the water and then farther over, the plane was like sinking. >> what did it sound like? >> first i heard a big crack and like it sounded exactly like thunder. >> are you talking to investigators? are they interviewing you? >> yeah, i've been interviewed about this. >> are they asking to you stick around and tell them more? >> i've been sticking around and not so far. >> thank you so much and i'm so sorry that you had to see that while you were out here to play soccer today.

thank you very much for sharing your story with us. and as we continue to monitor the scene, we've only got a few more hours of daylight. i'll ask jimmy to push back in. see that raft out there? you can see the man with the light vest on. that has been a very busy scene all day. now they're not moving so fast. that is because they are at a stand still. i've been talking with investigators about what exactly is going on. they are using sonar equipment trying to locate any debris at the bottom of the hudson river and this part of the hudson river, the current is fast, very deep, it's murky. there is oil and there is fuel down there. there is a tug boat that has been circling around this area over the last few hours and once they find that debris, there is a crane with a hook and had they find it, they're going to try and get some of the death brie off the bottom of the hudson before the current takes any more evidence away. >> back to you. >> laura engle, live on the new jersey side. breaking news. we're learning that both pilots

were warned they were on a collision course. apparently they didn't hear it or just didn't get it in time and there is the photo. we'll be right back. %%%%%%

this is the fox news alert. we're continuing to cover this tragic story unfolding in the hudson river. we she would you pictures for the very first time, the aftermath. this is literally within one to two seconds of this collision. now we're hearing that a pilot on the ground actually tried to warn the small plane and the helicopter that they appeared to be on a collision course moments before this crash over the hudson river in new york city. apparently neither of those pilots received that message in time because the plane, if you

can see there in the shot, clipped the helicopter. that what you're looking at right there is the wing which appears to be the left wing. >> although i must say in another picture, it looks like the right wing. so it's difficult to tell because the plane is spiraling downward. i think it's the right wing. >> it's upside down. i think it's the right wing. >> looks like the plane is upside down there. witnesses actually described the helicopter as spinning and twirling in the air before nose diving into the water. both of these aircraft obviously completely out of control. witnesses seeing all of this. in fact, you interviewed a guest earlier in the last couple hours that talked about how it is possible that the tourists and the passengers aboard these two aircraft survived the actual collision, but once those planes and the helicopter rather dove back into the hudson river, there is no way that -- >> that altitude, when you're moving so quickly, just falling

like a stone and you hit water, it's like hitting concrete. you really couldn't survive it. it's like jumpers off of bridges that cannot survive it because the impact kills them and it could be the same here. if they did survive it, perhaps they drowned. they were dragged down by the wreckage. we just don't know yet. >> two bodies were discovered. nine in all killed. one body found floating in the river. the other found inside the wreckage of one of the aircraft. the midair collision happening on a very sunny day. the visibility though in that water, as you've described it, murky at best. so the search and recovery efforts obviously will be very difficult. the currents are important to note. we had somebody on from the coast guard earlier and they said that the currents were literally almost at a stand still. right now they're moving at two knots. it's a slow current for the hudson river. we've got leo, who actually was on a soccer field and saw the

collision happen joining us live. chris was in an apartment and witnessed the tragedy. both witnessing this from new jersey. leo, tell us what you saw. >> basically i was on the bleachers on the soccer field. i was talking to one of the parents. i looked across to the river and i saw this plane on the east side and the helicopter -- the helicopter -- what i saw, it seemed as though they were trying to get away from it and it was tilting towards the west side. so towards -- it was coming toward the soccer field. at the moment when the plane hit the helicopter, all you heard was a blast and basically just debris going all over the place. took like a minute later, the helicopter just took a nose dive into the water. at that point, i did not see anyone. you couldn't see anyone in the helicopter or see any of the

passengers come out of that helicopter either. >> chris, what did you see? >> i was standing on my balcony looking out. actually i was on the phone and i was noticing that there was a lot of helicopter traffic going back and forth and i was telling my friend, wow, there is a lot of helicopter traffic. and basically right when i said that, i saw -- i heard a bang and then i heard like a helicopter propeller that was kind of going rrr, and i looked and i was like, oh, my god. and i think the helicopter propeller hit the helicopter and it sliced the helicopter in two and then it spun around again, the blade, and it knocked the tail off then and all three pieces came down. the front nose part did a nose dive into the water and the two tail pieces spun off, all three

with smoke trails following them. >> leo, let me go back to you. if i -- are you suggesting that you would agree with the assessment of the mayor, michael bloomberg, that it was the plane that ran into the backside of this chopper? >> yes, i would agree with that assessment. >> the plane hit it on the east side of the helicopter. >> was the plane, could you tell, upending or descending? >> to me, it looked like it was descending. >> it appeared, though, that it was definitely above the helicopter and so you have not seen the exclusive pictures that we're showing on our air here. looking back, the most vivid memory in your mind is this a memory you will never clearly forget. >> exactly. it was just -- i looked up and i couldn't believe what i was

seeing. it was so quick. it happened so quick. the plane hitting the side of the helicopter and then you just heard a blast and the helicopter went down, like a minute after. it all happened so quick. >> leo, chris, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. we appreciate it. >> we are getting more details on what may have led to the deadly midair crash over the hudson river today. eyewitnesses are calling in to give us their firsthand stories. eyewitnesses gave us these exclusive pictures as the search continues for the victims of this horrific accident.