(CNN) A typical afternoon inside the offices of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper suddenly turned to chaos Monday when a helicopter, just 11 minutes into its flight, crash-landed on the roof above.

Several floors of the building shook. Before the alarms started to blare and workers had a full understanding of what was happening, security was ordering them to grab their belongings and evacuate.

Frantic employees squeezed into the stairwell, hurrying down flight after flight, not knowing that a helicopter had just crashed on top of their building, sparking a fire and leaving one person dead.

New York City police and firefighters arrive at the helicopter crash.

“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.
The pilot, identified as Tim McCormack, died in the crash, law enforcement said.

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