Six people have died after a helicopter tragically crash-landed in New York's Hudson River, with onlookers saying it "split in half".
A family of five - including three children - who were visiting New York from Spain were killed in the incident, as well as the helicopter pilot.
According to onlookers, the Bell 206 aircraft appeared to lose its rotors before plunging into the river near Pier 40 in Manhattan, with the FDNY confirming it happened near the Hoboken border of New Jersey at around 3.15PM on Thursday.
Dozens of first responders rushed to the scene and NYPD divers were able to recover all six victims, with four being pronounced dead at the scene, while two "succumbed to their injuries" at a local hospital, according to a statement from police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The victims were identified as Agustin Escobar, a top executive of the global technology company Siemens, as well as his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children.
The family had just arrived from Barcelona earlier in the day, according to law enforcement sources cited by the New York Post.
The sixth victim - the pilot - has yet to be named, but Michael Roth, CEO of New York Helicopter, the tour company responsible for the trip, said in a statement to the outlet: "I’m absolutely devastated.
"The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter. And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business."
Witnesses who saw the helicopter fall from the sky claimed that it appeared to "split in half" as it fell.
Eric Campoverde, 21, told The Post that the aircraft appeared to drop at a 45-degree angle and plunged into the water in "seconds".
He explained: "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.
"It was maybe on top of the water for three or four seconds before it went under. It was fast."
Footage captured by onlookers showed the helicopter spiralling out of the sky, with the propellers also landing into the water below.
According to Flight Tracker data, the helicopter had been in the air for roughly 15 minutes before it crashed, having traveled up the Hudson from Lower Manhattan, turning around just north of the George Washington Bridge, before heading in the direction of Hoboken as it crashed.
The crash is the latest deadly aviation incident in the US this year, following a string of plane and helicopter crashes.
The year began with a tragic plane crash in Washington D.C. on January 29, when a commercial jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with a US Military Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers on board.
The plane had been coming in to land at Reagan Airport when it was struck by the helicopter, which was on a training mission, sending both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River, killing everyone on board.
Just days later, a medical jet crashed in Philadelphia while on its way to Mexico, killing all six on board and one person on the ground below.
A small plane carrying 10 people also crashed in Alaska this year, killing everyone on board, and two people died in February after two planes collided in midair at Arizona's Marana Airport.
A small aircraft also crashed in a neighborhood in Pennsylvania on March 9, landing on a row of parked cars and bursting into flames. All of the five on board were taken to local hospitals.
In February, a Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Toronto also flipped as it landed and burst into flames, though miraculously all on board made it out alive.
While New York is a popular destination for tourists taking helicopter rides to view the city from above, there have been several incidents involving helicopters in recent decades.
At least 32 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York since 1977, according to the Associated Press, with four people - including director Michael Findley - dying in a Sikorsky S-61L crash in 1977.
Nine people were killed in 2009 when a tourist helicopter carrying five people from Italy collided with a small private plane over the Hudson River.
In 2018, a Eurocopter AS350 went down in the East River, killing five people on board, while in 2019 an Agusta A109E helicopter crashed on the roof of a 54-story building in Midtown Manhattan, killing experienced pilot Tim McCormack, who was the only person on board.
Our thoughts remain with those affected by this latest tragedy.