Six people, including three kids, were killed in Thursday’s crash.
Authorities search for NYC chopper crash answers – An investigation is underway into the helicopter crash that killed six people — among them a family of Spanish tourists — when the craft went down on Thursday.
An investigation is underway into the helicopter crash that killed six people — the pilot and a family of Spanish tourists — when the chopper plunged into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey on Thursday.
A wreckage exam is now underway. The helicopter’s engine and other components have been pulled off the wreckage to be closely examined, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference Friday.
Divers on Friday are still working to recover other pieces of the helicopter, including the main rotor, the main transmission, the roof structure and the tail structure, Homendy said.
Homendy asked the public to send any photos and videos of the crash to the NTSB.
The family on board was Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, 49, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, 39, and their children, ages 4, 8 and 10, officials said.
The family came to New York City to join Escobar, who was in the U.S. for a business trip, according to Jersey City Mayor Fulop.
The family died one day before the 8-year-old’s birthday, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“We are working with [the medical examiner] to expedite release of the family to fly back to Spain,” Fulop said on social media Friday.
Also killed was the pilot, 36-year-old Seankese “Sam” Johnson, officials said.
Johnson, who had served in the military, accumulated 788 hours of total flight time, the NTSB said.
Johnson was “an amazing man,” said Matt Klier, his friend from the Navy and a fellow helicopter pilot.
“The man was an amazing pilot,” Klier told New York ABC station WABC, adding, “That’s all he wanted to do.”
The chopper — which was operated by the New York Helicopter Tours company — fell into the 5-feet-deep Hudson River near Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday afternoon, just over 15 minutes after it departed from the Wall Street Heliport, officials said.
Video from the crash showed the chopper plunging into the water without a tail rotor or a main rotor blade. It was found upside-down in the 50-degree water when rescuers arrived at the scene.
“We are devastated,” a representative of New York Helicopter Tours told ABC News. “My staff hasn’t stopped crying.”
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters four victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Two others later succumbed to their injuries, she said.
Officials at the Jersey City Medical Center, where the passengers were transported after the crash, tried as hard as they could to save the injured, Fulop told ABC News.
Fulop said the city has had concerns about the air traffic over the Hudson River before and is hoping this brings more attention to their safety concerns.
President Donald Trump called the crash “terrible” on social media and said the footage of the accident is “horrendous.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a post to X that the news was an “unimaginable tragedy.”
Dani Horbiak told ABC News she watched the helicopter “fall out of the sky” from her apartment window.
“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.
“It sounded like a sonic boom,” another witness told WABC. He said he saw the “helicopter splitting in two with the rotor flying off.”
The chopper — identified by the Federal Aviation Administration as a Bell 206 helicopter — was on its sixth flight of the day.
The company operating the helicopter has been in business for more than 30 years and has a fairly strong safety record. The NTSB has issued two reports: In 2015, one of their leased helicopters made a hard landing in New Jersey after the pilot had trouble controlling the chopper; in 2013, a helicopter with a family from Sweden on board made an emergency landing in the water following a maintenance issue.
