British Woman Killed In NY Helicopter Crash

A 40-year-old British woman has been killed after a helicopter crashed into the East River off New York's Manhattan.

The woman, who lived in Australia, was one of five people - four passengers and a pilot - on board the aircraft when it came down.

She has been named as Sonia Marra Nicholson and was in the helicopter with her partner, Helen Tomaski, and mother and father, Harriet and Paul.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed three British nationals were involved in the crash and that one had died. Next of kin have been informed, he added.

"We believe two were Brits who lived in Portugal, two lived in Australia, one probably was Australian and one was English, but that's changed a number of times, and we're still trying to talk to the families," the city's mayor Michael Bloomberg has said.

According to NYPD, two female passengers among the survivors are in critical condition and two males are in stable condition.

Mayor Bloomberg said in a news conference: "Apparently four or five people got out of the helicopter on their own.

"It was inverted upside down when some of the people were rescued and some of the passengers who got out were holding on to the skids."

A man who witnessed the crash, Dan Sweeney, told the TV station the helicopter was headed for a nearby heliport when it crashed into the river near 34th Street, just south of the United Nations building.

"It went down pretty fast, you could see the splash, you could see the top of it and it just disappeared," he said.

"It looked like it was trying to land at the heliport and missed the landing."

Other witnesses said the private helicopter was sputtering and appeared to be in mechanical distress before coming down.

Weather conditions were clear with a light wind at the time of the crash.

A spokesman for the New York Fire Department said: "We got the call at 3.22pm for us to respond to a helicopter crash.

"We did, and four people were pulled from out of the water.

"Two females are in a critical condition. One had suffered a cardiac arrest and one a respiratory arrest.

"They were both taken to Bellevue Hospital."

The injured British man was reportedly taken to NYU Hospital.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We are urgently investigating reports."

According to US reports the pilot was Paul Dudley, director of Linden Airport in New Jersey.

Mr Dudley piloted a Cessna light plane that made an emergency landing in a Brooklyn park in November 2006 after an engine failure.