1 Person Dead, Another Injured After 2 Helicopters Collide and Spiral to the Ground in Fiery Crash

One person is dead and another is injured after two helicopters collided before spiraling to the ground in a fiery crash in New Jersey.

According to police in Hammonton, located about 30 miles outside of Philadelphia, officials were alerted to an aviation crash between two helicopters at around 11:25 a.m. local time on Sunday, Dec. 28, near the city’s Basin Road and North White Horse Pike.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told PEOPLE in a statement that the two aircraft were an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and an Enstrom 280C helicopter, both of which are small, light piston-engine-powered helicopters. Each helicopter was only carrying one person, the pilot.

Both helicopters crash-landed on the ground, and one was engulfed in flames, police wrote on Facebook.

Local officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene, where they put out the fire.

In a statement shared on X later on Sunday, New Jersey Lt. Governor Tahesha Way wrote that the Atlantic County Office of Emergency Management, the Hammonton Police Department and the New Jersey State Police had responded to the incident.

“There is confirmed one fatality at this point and one subject transported by EMS with critical life-threatening injuries,” police said.

Local resident Dan Dameshek, 34, told NBC News that he was leaving a gym in the area when he suddenly heard a “loud snap” that he likened to a car crash. Video obtained by NBC showed a helicopter spinning in circles as it lost altitude, and footage from 6ABC Philadelphia showed smoke billowing in the sky after the crash.

“[I] turned around and saw one helicopter go from right side up to upside down and dive into the ground,” Dameshek said. “For a second, it looked like the other helicopter was OK, then I heard another smack like metal slapping metal, and it started spinning out of control and that’s what you see on the video.”

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The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are set to investigate the incident, and the FAA will share a preliminary incident report within the next business day.

First responders are asking the public to avoid the area as emergency crews continue to respond to the scene.