CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview With New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Interview

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BILL DE BLASIO (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This helicopter took off from the 34th Street Heliport, ended up here, which is a very unusual situation. And, obviously, that leads to questions that we have to answer.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is this a usual flight path for it?

DE BLASIO: No, this is an unusual situation, for sure.

Now, what we feel strongly is, there's no nexus to terror here. There's no evidence of any act of terror or motivation. This is a commercial pilot. This is someone who's been doing this work for a while. Apparently, it was an executive helicopter used to ferry around executives. So...

COOPER: It's a one-pilot helicopter, as far as I understand.

DE BLASIO: That's what we understand. And the only fatality that we know of at this point appears to be the pilot. It does not appear there was any customer or any passenger.

COOPER: Is there a landing pad on this...

DE BLASIO: No, there absolutely is not. Helicopters have not been landing on buildings in Manhattan for decades. There was a horrible crash in what was the Pan Am Building some years ago, and it was banned after that.

And, in fact, a helicopter should not be in this area of Manhattan without the approve of La Guardia Airport Tower. Is that because of Trump Tower or the Times Square or...

DE BLASIO: Certainly because of Trump Tower in particular. But just something like this should have been authorized. We don't have any indication it was, but we're still investigating to confirm that.

COOPER: Obviously, the conditions, it's -- there's a lot of fog up there. It's tough, low visibility. Could that have played a role?

DE BLASIO: It could have. I have to tell you, our fire department had to get up there over 50 stories, put out a fire on top of that building before any harm was caused to other people. Thank God. They did an extraordinary job.

New York City Fire Department got up there, put the fire out. There were no other injuries to anybody either in the building or on the ground.

COOPER: It's also extraordinary that there's not -- I mean, worst case, there could have been debris flown around. There's not.

DE BLASIO: Anderson, this could have been a horrible incident. This helicopter could have came down on the street. There could have been a huge amount of debris.

The only debris we heard of actually landed in one of the setbacks of the building, never made it down to the street. This could have been a real -- a bigger tragedy.

COOPER: Is the helicopter itself intact largely?

DE BLASIO: The helicopter is pretty obliterated at this point. It obviously a very hard hit. There was a fire on top of that. There's not much left of that helicopter.

But, look, we don't know what happened and why it happened. This is very unusual. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are going to look at this. It certainly begs the question of whether we need tighter regulations of the use of helicopters in densely populated areas.

But we don't know what was on with this individual. We see nothing criminal, thank God, but we don't know what was on with...

COOPER: Obviously, just finally, anything involving a building and an aircraft in New York City, it brings back memories, it brings back concerns. What's your message to New Yorkers?

DE BLASIO: My message to New Yorkers is, to be very clear, there was no act of terror here. There's no indication of any ongoing threat. This appears to be a very individual incident. We don't know if it was a malfunction. We don't know if there was something wrong with the pilot.

But thank God no one else was injured. When I first heard it, like you, because you're a New Yorker, too, we immediately thought, was this an act of terror, was this purposeful?

It does not appear to be not only an act of terror. We're not even sure if it was purposeful, as much as an emergency landing or some other kind of instant problem that came up. But we're going to have a full investigation to find out what happened here.

COOPER: Mayor de Blasio, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks very much.

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