reporter: it was actually steam. this cell phone video shows just how much. it was that high, like seven stories high. steam coming out. reporter: officials say right around 9:40 this morning, here on 58th street between 6th and 7th avenues, a problem underground sparked a chain reaction. the water leak is what caused a steam issue, obviously water affects the steam pipes in the ground and then you have steam coming up through the ground. that water pipe beneath the roadway sent enough water pouring on to the steam pipe that heavy thick vapors poured out in actually two spots right near each other. was it a lot of steam? a lot. what did you do? run away. reporter: including many construction workers who were right in the middle of a job, in a building that stretches from 57th to 58th street. seconds after the pavement buckled and that steam soared in quickly leaving the area after getting an order on their radios to evacuate the structure. next thing you
that suddenly erupted on 58th street. several hours later jonathan took a look at couldn t believe how close he came to seriously getting hurt. he s telling his story only to eyewitness news. the asphalt cracked and all the smoke was coming out like crazy. it was like everything was going to fall down. like it was going to be a huge sinkhole. reporter: officials say around 9:40 this morning there was a leak in a water main here below 58th street between 6th and 7th avenues. the water spilled on to a steam pipe underground and in two separate spots around the corner from each other, the chain reaction caused vapors. witnesses say at least seven stories high to shoot up in the air. there was a huge cloud of white smoke and then i got like a waxy substance on my glasses. and it was like pretty hard to clean off. i got it all over my coat. reporter: it all happened right as construction crews were beginning a job here on 58th street. several workers told me there were red
come seek the royal caribbean. adventures starting from 799. live from the cbs broadcast center in new york city this is cbs2 news. right now a developing story on long island. a plane down on a residential street narrowly missing homes and people. the aftermath, the investigation, and the problem the pilot encountered moments before impact. good evening. i am cindy hsu. the pilot and passenger of the plane are in the hospital today as investigators try to piece together what went wrong. the piper 2odell beckham crashed. cbs2 s scott rapoport is at the scene with more on this develop story. reporter: a harrowing scene here in this bayport neighborhood. you can see the damage, and authorities say it s a miracle no one here was killed. mangled and charred, the single-engine piper 2odell beckham came down from the sky, neighborhood on 2nd street and 3rd avenue, bursting into flames before startled witnesses. i was looking out my window and it stalled. he turned aroun
amazing video, sent in by our viewers. witnesses tell us they saw steam pouring out from under the street, onto west 58t street, between 6th and 7th avenue. s. avenues, between 10:00 this morning. they tell us a water main leak caused a reaction with a high- pressure steampipe. massive plumes of steam fill the air. they quickly located the water main leak and shut off that water main. explosion. as you can see, it would be a lot worse, if there was an actual explosion. but again, we re dealing with high-pressure steam that is in the street here in manhattan. and just some water that might surround the pipe and not compromise it, would create a small steam condition, which it did. was it scary? yeah. it was pretty scary. because i didn t know what was going on. so i started recording, and they started telling people to and then they blocked it off. but yeah, it was a bit scary. reporter: the leak did cause the street to buckle. right now, west 58th street, between 6th
we are dealing with steam and just water that might surrender surround the pipe and not compromise it would cause an extreme steam condition which it did. i started getting like a waxy substance on my glasses and clothes. reporter: their gear carefully removed and bagged for testing. they have not determined the exact location of the leak and what caused it. the city has 6785 miles of water mains and about a thousand miles are over 100 years old which makes it no surprise there were at least 400 water main breaks every year but one since 1998. there were 562 in 2015. i watched all the steam come out and so high it almost reached the top of that building. that s all i saw. reporter: it was scary? well, yeah, yeah. reporter: so you can see there where 58th street buckled after the leak and steam still escaping at this hour. so 58th between 6th and seventh avenues remains closed for repairs and so that the dep can isolate that leak. there were no evacuations due