the east side of manhattan, we re told from a source that he said he thought he had a window in all of that weather, about five to seven-minute window to take off. once he got actually in the air and started making his way around the lower part of manhattan and up the west side, there was some communication back to the heliport at some point that he needed to come back. and we re being told then the last communication this pilot had with the heliport was that he was unsure of his location or he had some visibility issues, but that seems to be the last communication, at least from the people there on the ground had with this pilot. so it still doesn t answer many questions as to then what happened next, and unfortunately, we may not know those answers because the only person who might have the answers is, of course, the pilot here, who was killed or died in this crash. that s absolutely right. what else are you learning about tim mccormack, the pilot we re talking about here? by all
national transportation safety board has arrived here to investigate butlio they will noe able to investigate the scene until tomorrow morning because of that fog cover. gives you an idea of what kind of terrible weather we were dealing with today when this crash happened at about 1:43:00 p.m. you can take a look at some of these photos from the fire department in york. it shows what s left, one pilot is dead. remarkably there are no injuries. but this helicopter crashing into the top of this building, 750 feet up. it left from the teleport of the east side of manhattan and it crashed into the building. when caused this accident but there was heavy rain at the timl continue. witnesses say they heard the engine, the building shake, they came out of the building of course a lot of ptsd in terms of peoplepl remembering the eventsf 9/11. everybody looking up. initial reports say it was an aircraft hitting the building, so there were some tense moments
let s bring in cnn crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz. i understand you re getting some new information. what are you learning? as you can imagine, the nypd detectives have been at the helipad where this they believe the helicopter originated from. this is the 34th street helipad on the east side of manhattan. and they have talked to people who interacted with this pilot. and what they have learned is that he knew the weather was a concern and that the pilot was waiting out the weather. he was there for some time, waiting it out, waiting it out. and for whatever reason, at some point decided, you know, it was safe enough for him to go up. and he went up, and they had been able to track as he flew around manhattan, hep went south from the helipad, across downtown, around battery park. and then up north on the west side. and then what happens is, they say that somewhere around 40th street, they could see that the helicopter starts to have some problems, and that is when he
they weren t sure if the fire was below them or not. terrifying moments for people in that building and here on the street. it could have been much worse. wolf? miguel marquez in new york city, thank you very much. crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz, managing director peter goles. you re working your sources. yeah. key clues already into investigators. nypd has been over to the helipad, east side of manhattan and 34th street in manhattan. they went over there immediately after the crash once they figured out this is where the helicopter took off from. they talked to people there. the people there tell them that the pilot here was concerned about the weather. he knew the weather was a concern and was actually waiting it out. he was going to wait, wait. he sat there and waited in hopes that the weather would get better. and then for whatever reason at some point decided, you know what? it s safe enough for me to get up, and then he did. what i m told by a source is that base
on the water. it is rare to see a helicopter going over the populated areas. and we have to make sure that doesn t happen again in the future. and i think the faa needs to look at this very carefully and ask the question, do they need to toughen up their rules or put more security or monitoring of the situation to make sure something like this couldn t happen again. we have a picture, i ll put it up on the screen, of what remains of this helicopter. it looks like it s been chopped into little pieces as it crashed into the roof of the skyscraper in new york city. what s so weird is that it took this roundabout route going from this the helicopter station on the east side down through the southern part of manhattan and making a u-turn and coming back up town. yeah, wolf, it s extremely strange. and look, we have as i said, the first thing i said when i hold a press conference earlier, there s no indication of terrorism. there s no indication of threat. now, every new yorker, the