NEW YORK: Nine people were believed dead today after a helicopter carrying Italian tourists crashed mid-air with a light airplane over New York’s Hudson River in full view of horrified residents.

Recovery teams resumed their search for bodies early today after operations had been suspended for the night.

Debbie Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a press

conference late Saturday that three bodies had been recovered.

Media reports said the bodies were of two adults and one child but Hersman could not confirm their identities or say which plane they had been aboard.

Hersman said

divers had located the wreckage of the helicopter and were using sonar equipment to search for the plane.

“Once that wreckage is pulled up.... depending on the current and the circumstances and the conditions... it

will be pulled up and taken to a secure location for further examination,” she said.