Images posted on the helicopter firm’s web site confirmed the couple and their kids smiling as they boarded simply earlier than the flight took off.
NEW YORK — A household from Spain was about to have fun the ninth birthday of one in all their kids when their sightseeing helicopter broke aside in midair and crashed into the Hudson River between New York Metropolis and New Jersey, killing all six folks aboard, officers mentioned Friday.
Authorities together with the Nationwide Transportation Security Board are investigating Thursday’s crash. There was no phrase of a trigger. NTSB investigators have been inspecting the remnants of the helicopter Friday and deliberate to temporary reporters.
The victims included Siemens government Agustin Escobar, his spouse, Mercè Camprubí Montal, who was a worldwide supervisor at an power expertise firm, and their three kids, along with the pilot.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams mentioned the kids have been 4, 8 and 10 years outdated, and the 8-year-old’s birthday was Friday.
“It’s only a actual unlucky state of affairs. And our coronary heart goes out to the members of the family,” Adams informed Fox 5 New York.
Escobar was within the New York space on enterprise and his household flew over to fulfill him for a number of days, mentioned Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey, in a put up on X. He mentioned a relative would arrive Friday and that officers have been working with the health worker to launch the our bodies for his or her return to Spain.
Items of the plane might nonetheless be seen floating within the river Friday morning as divers resumed the seek for proof. The majority of the cabin was retrieved by crane Thursday night time.
In one other aviation catastrophe on Friday, three folks have been killed and one was injured when a small aircraft crashed in Boca Raton, Florida.
Officers name for air visitors restrictions
Group activists and officers have repeatedly proposed banning or proscribing visitors at Manhattan heliports, citing New York Metropolis’s historical past of deadly helicopter accidents which have killed 38 folks since 1977 in addition to the relentless noise.
In an interview with The Related Press, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who represents a district on the west facet of Manhattan alongside the Hudson River, mentioned the crash was a “reminder of our worst fears of vacationer helicopters” and referred to as for restrictions on flights over town.
“Having non-essential flights over densely populated areas is a recipe for catastrophe,” he mentioned.
Robert Carroll, a Democratic member of the state Meeting, referred to as for a cease to all sightseeing and commuter-related helicopter flights till the reason for Thursday’s crash is set.
Adams, nevertheless, mentioned he would not wish to prohibit such flights till the investigation is full.
“We now have 1000’s of flights utilizing helicopters and tourism,” he mentioned on 1010 WINS information radio. “Folks wish to see town from the sky. On the coronary heart of that is security. It have to be performed proper. We should have a look at the upkeep document of this helicopter. We should have a look at the document of the pilot. And we have to discover out what occurred.”
A helicopter business group additionally urged warning.
“The helicopter group is in shock and mourning after the tragic and horrific occasions of yesterday,” Jeff Smith, chairman of the Japanese Area Helicopter Council, mentioned in an announcement. “Sadly, some well-meaning however misguided leaders are utilizing this tragedy to use and push their decades-old agenda to ban all helicopters.”
A collision between a aircraft and a vacationer helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed 9 folks, and 5 died in 2018 when a constitution helicopter providing “open door” flights went down into the East River.
Witnesses describe the helicopter’s plunge into the Hudson
The doomed flight departed a downtown heliport round 3 p.m. Thursday and lasted lower than 18 minutes. Radar knowledge exhibits it flew north alongside the Manhattan skyline then south towards the Statue of Liberty.
Video of the crash present elements of the plane tumbling by the air close to the Jersey Metropolis shoreline. The helicopter hit the river close to a protracted upkeep pier for a air flow shaft serving the Holland Tunnel.
Witnesses described listening to loud bangs and searching as much as see the helicopter’s principal rotor detach from the plane and spin away, whereas the cabin and the chopper’s severed tail growth plummeted into the river.
Rescue boats circled the submerged plane inside minutes of influence. The pilot and passengers have been faraway from the water however couldn’t be saved, officers mentioned.
Tour firm’s proprietor not sure what went improper
The flight was operated by New York Helicopter, one in all a handful of firms that provide vacationers sightseeing flights over town from helipads in Manhattan and the suburbs. Nobody answered the telephones on the firm’s workplaces in New York and New Jersey on Thursday or Friday.
An individual who answered the telephone on the house of the corporate’s proprietor, Michael Roth, mentioned he declined to remark. Roth informed the New York Submit he was devastated and had “no clue” what occurred.
“The one factor I do know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the primary rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,” the Submit quoted him as saying. He added that he had not seen something like this throughout his 30 years within the helicopter enterprise, however famous: “These are machines, they usually break.”
The Federal Aviation Administration recognized the helicopter as a Bell 206, a mannequin broadly utilized in business and authorities aviation, together with by sightseeing firms, TV information stations and police. It was initially developed for the U.S. Military and 1000’s have been manufactured over time.
FAA knowledge exhibits the helicopter was inbuilt 2004. It was a Bell 206 LongRanger IV, a barely longer model of the unique Bell 206 that may seat 5 passengers and two crew members.
In accordance with FAA data, the helicopter had a upkeep problem final September involving its transmission meeting. An entry within the company’s Service Problem Reporting System exhibits the transmission meeting had steel in oil, an indication of damage, and a bearing within the transmission was discovered to be flaking. The helicopter had logged 12,728 whole flight hours on the time, in line with the data.
Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Related Press writers Philip Marcelo in New York; Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York; and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain contributed.
