Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s a drone ... an NYPD chopper almost collided with two of the unmanned aircraft, similar to the one pictured, over the Hudson River near the George Washington Bridge. Source: Supplied
AN NYPD helicopter was almost wiped out over the Hudson River by two drones on Monday.
The close encounter happened over New York’s George Washington Bridge just after midnight, the New York Post reported.
The police chopper was on patrol at 12.15am when it was forced to swerve to miss the unmanned aircraft, sources said.
The NYPD pilots “observed flying object(s) at 2000 feet in vicinity of the George Washington Bridge, then circling heading toward the helicopter,’’ a police report obtained by the New York Post said.
“The officers were forced to change their course to avoid a collision.”
The police helicopter pursued the drones as they landed north of the bridge, near Fort Tryon Park, at about 12.35am and contacted NYPD patrol on the ground.
Manhattan residents Remy Castro, 23, and Wilkins Mendoza, 34 were arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.
A friend of the men said they recently bought their drones “just for the fun of it” and have flown them as high as 1524 metres.
A source called it a “very dangerous” scenario and noted 2009’s Miracle on Hudson in which a bird strike forced US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to crash-land a jetliner in the Hudson River.
“Although (drones) may only weigh a few pounds, that’s all birds weigh, and look what they did to the Sully Airbus,” the source told the newspaper.
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