Video appears to show helicopter that crashed into New York skyscraper swirling and diving minutes before it came down

• Amateur video appears to show the helicopter that crashed into a New York skyscraper on Monday not long before it went down.
• The footage shows an Agusta A109E dramatically losing altitude in bad weather over the East River.
• A helicopter matching its description crash-landed on the AXA Equitable building at 51st Street and 7th Avenue at about 1:45 p.m. local time.
• The pilot, Tim McCormack, the only person on board, was killed in the crash.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Bystander footage appears to show the helicopter that crashed on the roof of a New York City skyscraper on Monday flying erratically and making a steep dive shortly before it came down.

The footage, taken by a New Yorker named Wendy Slater and republished by several local news channels, shows what appears to be the Agusta A109E helicopter struggling to stay level in bad weather over the East River.

The helicopter can be seen struggling to maintain balance. It suddenly dives toward the river then pulls up before heading north.

At about 1:45 p.m., not long after Slater stopped filming, a helicopter crashed into the 229-meter AXA Equitable building on 51st Street and 7th Avenue.

Slater called in to the CW affiliate PIX11 News moments after the crash.

"He was going high, and flying sideways, and diving, and it was just crazy," she said.

Read more:Tourists who watched a helicopter crash on to the roof of a Manhattan building said 'it takes you back a little bit' to 9/11

"I assumed he was going to crash at any moment."

Late on Monday, New York's fire department posted images of the crash site to Twitter.

The helicopter's pilot, Tim McCormack, 58, who had 15 years flying experience, died in the crash. He was the only person on the helicopter, and there were no other reported injuries.

The New York Police Department's commissioner, James O'Neill, said at a press conference on Monday that McCormack had taken off in the privately owned helicopter from a helipad on 34th Street in Manhattan at 1:32 p.m. en route to Linden, New Jersey.

He crashed at 1:45 p.m.

Read more:Photos and video show the scene where a helicopter crashed into the roof of a building in midtown Manhattan

McCormack was also a volunteer firefighter for the East Clinton Fire Department, according to a tribute post by the department on Facebook.

"Chief McCormack was extremely respected by not only the members of the department, but throughout the Dutchess County fire service," it wrote. "Rest in Peace Brother."

"We went to the 51st floor and took stairs to the roof," Fire Department New York Lt. Adrienne Walsh told the media in a statement Monday evening outside the AXA Equitable building. "We saw a debris field that was on fire, with the fire contained to the roof. Unfortunately there was one casualty."

"We arrived on the scene within five minutes," FDNY's chief of fire operations, Thomas Richardson, said, "and most of the fire was extinguished within a half hour."

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