A helicopter pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists have been pronounced dead after a New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in mid-air and crashed into the Hudson River.
The victims included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company, and three children, in addition to the pilot.
Footage of the crash showed the aircraft, which was airborne for less than 18 minutes, breaking apart in mid-air before plunging into the water near Jersey City’s shoreline.
According to eyewitness Bruce Wall, he saw the aircraft “falling apart” in mid-air, with the tail and main rotor separating, and noted that the main rotor continued spinning as it detached and fell.
Another eyewitness, Dani Horbiak, witnessed the incident from her Jersey City home, where she heard unusual sounds outside before seeing the crash through her window.
“I heard what sounded like ‘several gunshots in a row, almost, in the air, then looked out my window and saw the chopper ‘splash in several pieces into the river,” Horbiak said.
Video of the crash suggested that a “catastrophic mechanical failure” left the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.
It is possible the helicopter’s main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.
“They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened,” Green said. “There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.”
It was learnt that rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel.
New Jersey Mayor Eric Adams disclosed that the bodies have been recovered by emergency crews, adding that the crashed helicopter had been mangled out of the water using a floating crane.
Adams further noted that investigations have commenced to determine the circumstances surrounding the tragic aviation disaster.
At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five died in 2018 when a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights went down into the East River.
Seven people were killed when a medical transport plane plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.
