Nine people are feared dead after a tour helicopter and a light aircraft collided near New York City and crashed into the Hudson River.
The collision occurred between Hoboken, in New Jersey, and Manhattan, just across the river.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said six people - one pilot and five Italian tourists - were on the helicopter. Three people including a child were on the plane.
He said no-one was thought to have survived. Three bodies have been found.
Diving operations have now been suspended until Sunday morning.
Mr Bloomberg said that the emergency operation had changed from a rescue to a recovery mission and that the incident was "not going to have a happy ending".
He said it appeared the plane had flown into the rear of the helicopter, but stressed that an investigation needed to be carried out.
There was some evidence from an eyewitness that one of the wings of the aircraft had been severed, the mayor said.
He said rescue workers had located some wreckage, probably of the helicopter, but that due to the limited visibility 30ft under the water it had not been possible to confirm which of the aircraft it was.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that before the crash, a helicopter pilot on the ground had seen the aircraft approaching each other and had unsuccessfully tried to radio a warning to them.
Falling debris
Television footage showed rescue craft heading to the site from both sides of the Hudson River after the incident happened.
"We heard first a huge crash, a boom almost," said Melissa Green, who was having lunch on the New York bank of the river at the time.
“ We saw the helicopter propellers fly all over ” Katie Tanski Witness
"We turned around and saw these two mushroom splashes," she told the Associated Press news agency.
Other witnesses described seeing debris - including the plane's wing - falling into the water.
On the river front at Hoboken, people scattered as debris landed. An aircraft wheel fell onto one local street, AP reported.
"We saw the helicopter propellers fly all over," said Hoboken resident Katie Tanski.
The helicopter was operated by Liberty Helicopters, a sightseeing company that flies tourists around sites such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The light plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and was heading to Ocean City in the same state, an aviation official said.
The weather at the time of the collision, noon local time (1600 GMT), was said to be clear and mild.
In January, a passenger plane with 155 people aboard ditched into the Hudson River without loss of life, after apparently hitting a flock of geese.
Published on the BBC Website
Nine killed in mid-air crash over New York
Five Italian tourists and a child among dead after light plane and helicopter plunge into Hudson
Nine people were killed today after a sightseeing helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided in mid-air with a small plane near New York and crashed into the Hudson river.
Eyewitnesses saw a wing come off the plane during the collision just after noon US time and watched as the helicopter "fell like a stone" into the river.
Five Italian tourists and the pilot were aboard the helicopter; in the plane, along with the pilot, there were two passengers, one of whom was a child. Another pilot on the ground at the heliport saw the plane approaching and tried to radio an alert to the helicopter above. But the warning was either not heard, or failed to get through in time.
The collision took place just south of the stretch of river where a US Airways jet that had run into trouble after apparently hitting a flock of geese was ditched in January by its pilot, who was hailed as a hero for saving the lives of all 150 people on board.
Two bodies were recovered but there was no hope of finding survivors, said New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who described the incident as "not survivable".
He said that police had found one piece of wreckage in the murky waters of the Hudson and that the search would probably continue for a few days.
"This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission. There's not going to be a happy ending," he added.
The plane, which was a single-engine Piper PA-32R-300, had taken off earlier from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and was flying south along the river when it appeared to lose control as it banked steeply and struck the helicopter close to the shore line of Hoboken, New Jersey.
The helicopter, operated by Liberty Helicopter, the largest sightseeing and charter helicopter operator in the north-east US, had taken off moments earlier from West 30th Street in Manhattan.
Hundreds of people on both sides of the mile-wide river watched as the two aircraft appeared to break apart, with the rotary blades detaching from the helicopter, opposite the west side of Manhattan.
On the waterfront at Hoboken, people scattered as pieces of the debris fell from the sky while a wheel from one of the aircraft lay on Hoboken's Sinatra Drive.
"I saw the plane coming down and the helicopter coming across," said Hilda Igartua, 53, of Union City, New Jersey, who added that the plane's trajectory did not change after the collision but the helicopter came apart and spun down in pieces.
"We saw the helicopter propellers fly all over," said Katie Tanski, of Hoboken.
Melissa Green, 33, and her husband were in a park along the river on the New York side and heard the crash. "We turned around and saw these two mushroom splashes," Green said.
"What was really weird is there was no wreckage, nothing. I hope they find the people, but I don't know. They just disappeared," she explained.
"First I saw a piece of something flying through the air. Then I saw the helicopter going down into the water," she said, adding that the crowd in the park seemed too stunned to react. "I thought it was my imagination."
The weather at the time of the collision was clear and mild. Vessels including water taxis diverted to the scene of the accident along with fire boats and Coast Guard rescue teams but both of the aircraft sank quickly under a strong current.
Police divers were carrying out a search of the river as an investigation was launched by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The accident happened in a busy general aviation corridor over the river that is often filled with sightseeing craft on sunny days.
Pilots have some freedom to pick their own route, as long as they stay under 300m and do not stray too close to Manhattan's skyscrapers.
Accidents are not frequent, but happen every few years. Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees baseball team, and his flight instructor died in 2006 when their plane hit a skyscraper while flying along a popular sightseeing route.
Two years ago, a Liberty helicopter fell 150m to the ground during another sightseeing trip. The pilot was credited with safely landing the aircraft in the Hudson and helping evacuate the seven passengers.
In 1997, a rotor on one of its sightseeing helicopters clipped a Manhattan building, forcing an emergency landing. No one was hurt.
Published The Guardian
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