The Hudson River along Manhattan’s skyline was the sight of a traffic collusion between a helicopter and a small plane today, August 8, 2009.

A tour helicopter - Eurocopter AS 350 operated by Liberty Tours - and a Piper PA-32 plane - which took off from New Jersey - collided a little after noon on a clear-day in what witnesses describe as an impact that dismembered the plane’s wings and led to the helicopter “dropp[ing] like a rock.”

Photo Credit: Robert Mecea/AP Photo.

Five Italian tourists and a the pilot were on the helicopter and three on the plane. All nine are presumed dead. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that the authority effort “has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission” and that “this is not going to have a happy ending” as he concluded that the crash was “not survivable.”

Thus far, two bodies have been recovered in the water with one tied in the wreckage in the other floating.

Debris is scattered along the river.

Source: The Wall Street Journal.