A sightseeing helicopter carrying a Spanish tech executive, his wife, and their three young children plunged into the Hudson River during what was meant to be a scenic tour of New York City.
According to Daily Mail, the tragic incident occurred at 3:15 pm on Thursday when the aircraft's main rotor blades separated from the body and sliced through its tail, creating an "unrecoverable event" that sent the helicopter crashing into the water.
Siemens executive Agustín Escobar, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their children aged four, five, and eleven had just arrived from Barcelona when they decided to take the ill-fated helicopter tour. The 36-year-old pilot, who remains unidentified, also perished in the crash after radioing the base about running low on fuel.
Former military aviator and attorney Jim Brauchle of Motley Rice LLC shared his analysis of the crash footage:
From the footage, it appears that the main rotor struck the body of the helicopter, cutting off the tail of the helicopter, which created an unrecoverable event. The two main causes of this phenomenon are mechanical failure or excessive maneuvering. Still, a full investigation is needed to understand why this tragedy occurred.
Michael Roth, the 71-year-old owner of New York Helicopter, which operated the tour, confirmed the pilot's distress call about low fuel. He expressed shock at the incident, noting that in his 30 years in the helicopter business, he had never witnessed such a catastrophic rotor blade failure.
The helicopter took off from Wall Street Heliport and flew for approximately 16 minutes, circling the Statue of Liberty before heading up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge at an altitude of about 1,000 feet.
Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft "split in half" before it plummeted into the water near Pier 40. The crash produced what one observer described as a "sonic boom" sound that echoed across the area.
Rashmi Kamkeri, a 30-year-old engineer working from her Newport Park apartment, provided a firsthand account of the crash. She initially mistook the sound for thunder before witnessing the helicopter's final moments roughly 10 feet above the water.
Emergency responders worked through Thursday night to recover the wreckage, with dive teams from the NYPD and New Jersey State Police scheduled to resume their search on Friday for remaining aircraft parts.
The incident has renewed attention to helicopter tour safety in New York City, where at least 32 people have died in helicopter crashes since 1977. The most recent fatal crash occurred in 2018 when five passengers drowned after their helicopter went down in the East River.
At the time of Thursday's crash, weather conditions included cloudy skies with 10-15 mph winds and gusts up to 25 mph. While surface visibility was good at 10 miles, the approaching weather system brought light rain to the area.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a "go team" to investigate the precise cause of the crash, which could take several months to determine.
The Escobar family perished during what was meant to be their first day exploring New York City. Heartbreaking photos taken shortly before the crash showed the family posing happily on the helipad and inside the aircraft.
Four victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others were transported to nearby hospitals where they later succumbed to their injuries. The water temperature was approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the crash.
The investigation continues as authorities work to recover all parts of the aircraft and determine the exact sequence of events that led to this devastating loss of life.
