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NJ helicopter crash: Video shows chopper in freefall moments after midair collision
One person is dead and another is critically injured after two helicopters collided in midair Sunday in Hammonton, New Jersey.
HAMMONTON - A helicopter pilot who was critically injured in a midair crash in New Jersey on Sunday has died, officials say.
What we know:
Investigators say the midair collision happened just before noon on Dec. 28 shortly after the two helicopters launched from Hammonton Municipal Airport.
An Enstrom model F-28A piloted by 65-year-old Kenneth Kirsch burst into flames upon crash landing into a tree line off Basin Road, less than a mile from the airport.
An Enstrom model 280C that was being flown by Michael Greenberg, 71, crashed in an open field. Greeberg, a Sewell resident, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kirsh, from Carney's Point, was flown to Cooper Trauma Center and was pronounced dead days later.
Police say witnesses reported the two helicopters flying close together just before the crash.
Witnesses described terrifying moments
What they're saying:
Several witnesses described watching the helicopters go down in disbelief.
"It was shocking. Still shaking — still shaking a little bit that happened," Sal Silipino, owner of the Apron Café, which overlooks the Hammonton Municipal Airport runway, told FOX 29.
Silipino said he watched both aircraft fall from the sky.
"We looked up, and I saw the one spiraling down. I didn’t see him hit," he said. "Then I saw the other one go down. It was disbelief — like, is that really happening?"
Silipino also shared a chilling detail: the two pilots had breakfast together at his restaurant just before taking off.
"They were just at our café having breakfast. They’re regulars — they come in every week or every other week," Silipino said. "They fly in together. They seemed to be very nice people — very kind to all the workers and staff."
Pilots were friends, often flew together
According to police and flight records, both pilots were experienced and routinely flew in the area. Chief Friel said preliminary reports indicate the helicopters may have been flying close together when the collision occurred.
"Reports were that they were flying in tandem — that they were flying close together, which is probably what caused the collision to occur," Friel said, adding that his department is not investigating the aviation aspects of the crash.
Friel also noted that the pilots were friends and had flown together before.
"It’s not a very normal thing," he said. "It has been noted that the pilots had done that in the past. They apparently are friends, fly into the airport, have a meal together at the café and were leaving together. Friends."