Several floors of Midtown Manhattan skyscraper seemed to shake after a helicopter crash-landed on the roof above.
Security started telling people to grab their belongings and evacuate before the alarms began to blare.
Frantic employees squeezed into the stairwell, hurrying down flights, not knowing that the helicopter had crashed on top of their building, sparking a fire and leaving one person dead.
“It took a half hour to get from the 29th floor down to the ground floor. There were just too many people, it was too crowded, and everybody was trying to get off on all the floors at the same time,” Nathan Sutton said, standing outside of 787 Seventh Avenue.
“You could feel the building shake, and you could actually hear the alarms,” he said.
New York City police and firefighters arrive at the helicopter crash.
The pilot, identified as Tim McCormack, died in the crash, law enforcement said.