In a tragic incident on Sunday, two helicopters collided midair in New Jersey, resulting in one fatality and leaving another individual in critical condition, as reported by the authorities.

Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel stated that emergency responders were alerted to the aviation accident around 11:25 a.m. Video footage captured at the scene depicted one of the helicopters rapidly spiraling to the ground. Firefighters and police promptly worked to extinguish the blaze that engulfed one of the helicopters.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the collision as occurring between an Enstrom F-28A and an Enstrom 280C helicopter over the Hammonton Municipal Airport. Each aircraft had only its pilot on board. One pilot lost their life, while the other was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries.

Sal Silipino, who owns a cafe close to where the crash occurred, mentioned that the pilots were familiar faces at his establishment, often sharing breakfast before flying. He recounted how customers watched as the helicopters took off, only to see one start to spiral downward, soon followed by the other.

“It was a shocking sight,” Silipino remarked. “I’m still trembling from witnessing it.”

Hammonton resident Dan Dameshek told NBC10 that he was leaving a gym when he heard a loud snap and saw two helicopters spinning out of control.

“Immediately, the first helicopter went from right side up to upside down and started rapidly spinning, falling out of the air,” Dameshek told the TV station. “And then it looked like the second helicopter was OK for a second, and then it sounded like another snap or something … and then that helicopter started rapidly spinning out of the air.”

Hammonton is a town of about 15,000 people located in Atlantic County in the southern part of New Jersey, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Philadelphia. The town has a history of agriculture and is located near the Pine Barrens, a forested wilderness area that covers more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares).

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the crash, Friel said.

Investigators will likely first look to review any communications between the two pilots and whether they were able to see each other, said Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for the FAA and NTSB.

“Virtually all midair collisions are a failure to what they call ‘see and avoid,’” Diehl said. “Clearly they’ll be looking at the out-of-cockpit views of the two aircraft and seeing if one pilot was approaching from the blind side.”

Although it was mostly cloudy at the time of the crash, winds were light and visibility was good, according to the weather forecasting company AccuWeather.

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