The pilot of a doomed sightseeing helicopter made a final radio call minutes before the chopper plunged into New York’s Hudson River.
The Bell 206 aircraft, operated by New York Helicopter, went down just after 3:15PM on Thursday (April 10), slamming into the water off Lower Manhattan near Pier 40.
On board were Agustin Escobar, a top executive at Siemens Spain, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children - ages four, five, and 11 - along with their 36-year-old pilot, whose name has not been publicly released. The family had just arrived in the city from Barcelona, Spain, earlier that day, according to reports.
Michael Roth, the owner of New York Helicopter, told The Telegraph that the pilot’s last communication was chilling in its normalcy - a simple call to say he was returning to the helipad for fuel.
“He called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,” Roth said, adding that another one of his pilots had flown over the river and saw the helicopter upside down in the water.
Roth said his team is “devastated” by the tragedy. “The death of any human being is a monumental disaster,” he shared.
After reviewing footage, Roth told The New York Post he had “no clue” what went wrong - but confirmed the helicopter’s main rotor blades were gone.
Graphic video shared online shows the helicopter spiraling out of the sky, missing its rotors, and crashing upside down into the river with a deafening splash.
The aircraft had taken off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport at 2:59PM and traveled north up the Hudson River before turning back south near the George Washington Bridge, according to News.com.au. Just minutes later, something went catastrophically wrong.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the aircraft “lost control and hit the water just a few feet off the coast of Pier A Park in Hoboken".
All six occupants were pulled from the wreckage. Four were pronounced dead at the scene, while the remaining two died after being transported to local hospitals.
Witnesses reported seeing the helicopter split in half as it fell. One bystander, Avi Rakesh, told NBC News he saw the chopper blade fly off just before it dropped.
“I don’t know what happened to the tail, but it just straight up dropped,” he said. “It dropped feet away from Holland Tunnel, and I can’t imagine if it hit it.”
Another eyewitness, Dani Horbiak, told ABC News she was looking out her apartment window when she saw the helicopter fall out of the sky. “I heard five or six loud noises that sounded almost like gunshots in the sky and saw pieces fall off, then watched it fall into the river,” she said.
Eric Campoverde, 21, said the helicopter appeared to drop at a steep angle. “I was walking home from work when I saw the helicopter going down at a 45-degree angle. Then I heard and saw a big splash. It was going fast,” he told The Post. “It was maybe on top of the water for three or four seconds before it went under.”
Kaz Daughtry, NYC’s deputy mayor for public safety, said first responders showed visible “trauma” after the recovery effort and stressed they “did everything they can” and “really tried their hardest” to save the passengers on board.
President Donald Trump reacted to the tragedy on Truth Social, calling the footage “horrendous," adding: “God bless the families and friends of the victims... Announcements as to exactly what took place, and how, will be made shortly!”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also offered condolences, calling the loss “an unimaginable tragedy".
This crash is now under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.