Six people killed in helicopter crash in Hudson River in New York

A helicopter has crashed into the Hudson River just off Manhattan, killing six people, officials said.

The New York fire department said it received a report of a helicopter in the water at 3.17pm on Thursday, with sources later telling ABC News that a family of Spanish tourists, including three children, had been on the helicopter alongside the pilot.

An official confirmed to The Associated Press that six people were aboard, and all had been killed in the crash.

Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter "falling apart" in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off.

The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.

Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.

"There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard," she said in a phone interview.

Videos posted on social media showed the helicopter mostly submerged, upside-down in the water.

Multiple rescue boats were seen circling the aircraft. The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel.

Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on streets near the scene with their lights flashing.

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with both planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights.

Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.

Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering "open door" flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.