A family of Spanish tourists, a couple of adults and their three children, died on Thursday when the helicopter they were flying over New York City crashed into the Hudson River. The pilot also did not survive the collision.
"Six innocent souls have lost their lives, and we pray for them and their families. The accident has been heartbreaking and worse than we could have imagined," lamented the State Governor, Kathy Hochul. New York Mayor, Eric Adams, confirmed in a press conference that the victims were Spanish. "The helicopter took off around 3:00 in the afternoon. The six victims have been found and declared dead. We pray for their families and appreciate the courage and valor of the rescue forces," he explained to the journalists. "We will not disclose the identities until the families have been informed," he added.
Agustín Escobar, Mercè Camprubí, and their three children before boarding the helicopter.
The deceased Spanish individual is Agustín Escobar, appointed president and CEO of Siemens Spain in 2022, as reported by local media citing police sources. Escobar was in charge of the railway mobility division at Siemens since last December. His wife was Mercè Camprubí Montal, global manager of the Siemens Energy division.
The city's fire department received an initial emergency call around 3:17 local time (9:17 PM in Spain) reporting a helicopter in the water, sinking upside down. Social media is filled with images and messages, posted shortly after, showing the wreckage near Jersey City.
"I heard a loud snap... I looked over there... and saw a helicopter overturn and fall into the water," said a witness to ABC7. "I didn't see anyone come out." A video of the accident circulating on social media shows the rotor blades completely detached from the fuselage but still spinning in the air. The helicopter's fuselage plummeting from a great height.
Emergency responders indicated that the aircraft belonged to the New York Helicopter company and took off minutes before 3:00 from Manhattan, "flying first south and then north along the Hudson River. It reached the George Washington Bridge before losing control and crashing. The investigation is ongoing, and the information is preliminary. Calls began coming in to 911 from 3:17 onwards, after the accident near Hoboken. The first unit arrived within minutes. Divers entered the water and retrieved the bodies. According to the manifest, there were six people, one pilot, two adults, and three children," one of the officials said.
"I am devastated," the rental company's CEO, Michael Roth, told the New York Post. He claims not to know what happened yet. The same newspaper published a photo of the family moments before boarding the helicopter, which was available on the company's digital profiles.
Police and firefighters quickly found the family, but three of the passengers were already deceased. Two others were evacuated to hospitals in the area but did not survive. The pilot's body could not be immediately located by the divers and coast guard, urgently mobilized in very unfavorable conditions, with fog, poor visibility, rain on the surface, and very cold waters at this time of year.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, expressed his condolences for the six deceased individuals on social media. "The news we received today about the helicopter accident in the Hudson River is devastating," wrote the head of government in a post on social media, where he also officially confirmed that the deceased were five Spaniards from the same family, three of them children, and the pilot. Sánchez described the tragedy as "unimaginable." "I share in the grief of the victims' loved ones in this heartbreaking moment," he expressed in the social media post.
The city's sky is usually filled with helicopters, private ones that serve as taxis between the mansions in the outskirts and the airports and businesses in Manhattan. Or tourist companies that fly over the river carrying tourists from heliports in Lower Manhattan and New Jersey. Prices vary depending on the number of people and duration, but there are options starting from around $250 per seat.
The last fatal helicopter accident in New York City occurred six years ago, according to The New York Times, but at least 32 people have died in helicopter accidents in the city since 1977, according to Associated Press data. In 2018, five tourists drowned when a helicopter flying with open doors crashed into the East River and overturned. In 2009, another tourist helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided with a private plane over the Hudson, resulting in nine deaths.