Shocking images show how the helicopter that crashed on top of a skyscraper in New York was obliterated on impacted.
The city’s fire department released photos of the scene after the collision, which left the pilot dead and sparked mass evacuations.
Only a few pieces of the wreckage, including a piece of the tail, were recognisable as having been parts of an aircraft.
The helicopter crashed on the roof of a 54-storey office building in midtown Manhattan in rainy weather shortly before 2pm local time (8pm GMT) on Monday.
Damage to the building itself appear light but the aircraft was almost completely destroyed.
The helicopter was flying in rain and heavy clouds when it hit AXA Equitable building in the midtown area.
Dozens of emergency vehicles swarmed the area around Seventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets, not far from Times Square and Rockefeller Centre.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was at the scene soon after the crash, told reporters that it appeared a helicopter attempted a forced emergency landing on the roof and that no one inside the building had been injured.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that "preliminary information is that only the pilot was on board" the Agusta A109E helicopter.
A fire that broke out following the crash was quickly brought under control, Mr Cuomo said. "People who were in the building said they felt the building shake," he said.
The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) said it had sent more than 100 emergency workers to the scene.
Shauna Farrell, who was working on the 36th floor when the crash happened, said she and her colleagues started running for the emergency exits after feeling the impact.
She told ABC News: “We ran down. I think we were the first floor to evacuate, actually, because we felt it so quickly.
"There was already FDNY on the scene. We were kind of just running away from the building as quickly as we could."
The pilot, who was killed in the smash, was not the owner of the helicopter, officials said. They did not immediately release his name.
