Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive from Spain, was sightseeing in New York City with his family when their helicopter crashed, killing everyone on board, senior law enforcement officials said. Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise and then seeing the helicopter drop.
Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive from Spain, was sightseeing in New York City with his family when their helicopter crashed, killing everyone on board, senior law enforcement officials said. Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise and then seeing the helicopter drop.
Live Updates: Five Tourists and Pilot Killed When Helicopter Crashes Into Hudson River
Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive from Spain, was sightseeing in New York City with his family when their helicopter crashed, killing everyone on board, senior law enforcement officials said. Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise and then seeing the helicopter drop.
Six people were killed when a sightseeing helicopter carrying a family from Spain tumbled out of the sky on Thursday and plunged into the Hudson River just off Jersey City, N.J., across from Manhattan.
“Six innocent souls have lost their lives, and we pray for them and their families,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said.
Agustín Escobar, the chief executive for rail infrastructure for the technology company Siemens, his three children and his wife were pulled from the helicopter or the frigid river but none survived, a senior law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the crash. Another official confirmed that the Siemens executive and his family had been killed. The pilot was also killed.
The helicopter went down near a ventilation building above the Holland Tunnel, across the river from the West Village, at about 3:15 p.m.
Here is what else we know:
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Witness and video accounts: Video of the crash shows the helicopter tumbling end over end and hitting the water at a high speed. One witness, Mandy Bowlin, said she was on a Circle Line tour boat, heard a boom behind her and saw the helicopter plummeting. A rotor flew off and the craft nose-dived into the water, sending debris flying toward the boat.
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The helicopter and its operator: The helicopter was a Bell 206 operated by New York Helicopter, which runs sightseeing tours for several hundred dollars a flight. The company’s chief executive, Michael Roth, said he did not know what had happened to the aircraft, which he had leased from a company in Louisiana.
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The route: The helicopter appeared to have taken off from Downtown Manhattan Heliport, near the lower tip of Manhattan. It circled near the Statue of Liberty, flew north just off New York’s shoreline to the George Washington Bridge, and was heading back south just off New Jersey’s shoreline when it crashed.
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The cause is unknown: The cause of the crash is under investigation, said New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch. The Coast Guard said it was working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Transportation Safety Board to salvage the helicopter. “Announcements as to exactly what took place, and how, will be made shortly,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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Emergency response: Rescue divers and other emergency personnel swarmed the area near where the helicopter went down but could not save anyone. Two passengers were alive when pulled from the water but later died, Ms. Tisch said.
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History of other crashes: At least 32 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977, and Thursday’s crash was the deadliest since at least 2018, when a sightseeing helicopter that was flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over.
Patrick McGeehan, Christopher Maag and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
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An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Agustín Escobar’s most recent role at the technology company Siemens. He was the chief executive for rail infrastructure. He was formerly the president of Siemens Spain.
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
The firm that operated the helicopter that crashed in the Hudson River on Thursday, killing all six people aboard, has a long history of flying excursions around New York City, some of which have not ended as planned.
The company, New York Helicopter Charter, had one of its aircraft crash while hovering 20 feet off the ground after takeoff in northern New Jersey in 2015. Two years earlier, another of its helicopters was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River near the Upper West Side of Manhattan after it lost power during a sightseeing tour for a family of four.
In the 2015 incident, the pilot reported that the helicopter started to spin out of control before he put it down for a “hard landing.” An investigation found that the aircraft had previously been involved in a hard landing in Chile in 2010 and that a drive shaft that was “unairworthy” appeared to be a replacement part that was unsuitable, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter involved in that crash was a Bell 206 model that New York Helicopter Charter was leasing from Meridian Helicopters, a Louisiana company. Meridian also owns the helicopter that plunged into the Hudson on Thursday, records show.
In the 2013 incident, a family of four tourists from Sweden was taking a sightseeing tour on a Sunday morning in a red Bell 206 that took off from a heliport near Wall Street. As the helicopter began to descend over the water, the pilot inflated pontoons that kept the aircraft upright in the water. The passengers went to a hospital but nobody was seriously injured.
Michael Roth, the chief executive of New York Helicopter Charter, has been operating sightseeing flights in and around the city for 30 years. Reached on Thursday after the fatal crash, Mr. Roth confirmed that the helicopter that went down had been leased by his company from its Louisiana-based owner.
He said that he could not explain what had happened on the flight. “I have no information whatsoever,” he said by phone from New Jersey. “I’m not there.”
He added that as a father and grandfather, he was “devastated” by the tragic outcome.
Court records suggest that New York Helicopter Charter was recently facing financial difficulties. One of its helicopters was repossessed in December after the company failed to pay the lease, according to a lawsuit filed in January in federal court in Manhattan by PHI Aviation, a Louisiana-based company that said it was owed $1.4 million. And New York Helicopter Charter filed for bankruptcy in 2019, saying that its business had been harmed by changes in New York City policies on air traffic around the city.
Operators like New York Helicopter Charter have been limited for several years by an agreement they made with city officials amid widespread complaints about noise from their frequent, low flights over the city. To avoid being banned from the city-owned heliport near Wall Street, the companies agreed to stick to prescribed routes and not to fly on Sundays.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Sheelagh McNeill and Susan C. Beachy contributed research. Christopher Maag contributed reporting.
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Adam Gray
Emergency crews recovering the helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River, near Jersey City, N.J., Thursday night.
President Trump offered condolences to the families and friends of the “terrible helicopter crash” in a message on Truth Social. He said that the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and his staff were investigating and that “announcements as to exactly what took place, and how, will be made shortly.”
The five passengers killed were Agustín Escobar, the president of the Spanish branch of the technology company Siemens, and his wife and three children, according to a senior law enforcement official. Another official confirmed that the Siemens executive and his family had been killed.
Every year, tens of thousands of tourist helicopter flights depart from heliports in and around New York City. These tours, which generally cost several hundred dollars, advertise seeing many of the city’s iconic sights from above — Central Park, One World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty — in as little as 15 minutes.
The helicopter crash on Thursday was the tourism sector’s third fatal one in the past two decades. In 2009, a sightseeing helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided with a private plane over the Hudson River, killing nine people. In 2018, a helicopter flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over. Five sightseers drowned, and only the pilot survived.
Most of the helicopter activity in the New York City region is made up of tourist, charter and commuter flights, according to Stop the Chop, an organization seeking to limit the flights around the city, citing noise complaints and climate concerns.
Tours often advertise a path flying up the Hudson River and back to the tip of Lower Manhattan, with views spanning many landmarks and the Manhattan skyline.
Some 30,000 tourist helicopter trips each year originate from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport at Pier 6. The New York City Economic Development Corporation, which has managed the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, has said that the tourism helicopter industry contributes about $50 million “in annual economic impact” to the city a year.
The activity was once double this amount; in 2016, the number of tourist helicopter flights was halved, after decades of rising complaints about excessive noise and air pollution from opponents.
Other tourist helicopter operators depart from heliports in New Jersey, in Kearny and Linden.
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The helicopter was operated by New York Helicopter, a local excursion company, said Michael Roth, the company’s chief executive. Roth said he did not know what had happened to the aircraft, which his company leased from its Louisiana-based owner.
“I have no information whatsoever,” Roth said when reached by phone in New Jersey. “I’m not there.”
The office of emergency management in Jersey City, on the west side of the Hudson River across from Manhattan, has started to investigate the crash, according to a spokeswoman for Steven M. Fulop, the city’s mayor.
The agency has secured the helicopter and will work alongside officials from the National Transportation Safety Board, which will take the lead on the investigation, the spokeswoman said.
Police Commissioner Tisch said the cause of the crash is under investigation. The helicopter had taken off earlier this afternoon and followed a path south before heading north up the Hudson and then returning south along the New Jersey shoreline, where it crashed.
Commissioner Tisch said most of the passengers were already dead when they were removed from the water, but two passengers were taken to a nearby hospital, where they died soon after.
“Our hearts go out to the families of those who were onboard,” Mayor Eric Adams said. There were three adults and three children on board, visiting from Spain he said. “All six have been removed from the water, and sadly all six victims have been pronounced deceased,” he said.
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Peter Park, who works from home about a block from the Hudson in Jersey City, N.J., said he heard “a loud bang” at about 3:15 p.m. and looked out his window to see an aircraft emitting black smoke.
Then he saw the unattached blades of a helicopter falling into the river so close to the New Jersey side that he feared they might strike people on the shore.
Park said he had texted his wife to say, “I think I just saw a helicopter fall into the river.” Then he dialed 911, he said.
Mayor Eric Adams has just arrived with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The Downtown Skyport on the East River closed early on Thursday, according to a woman who worked at the site but declined to be named. The sky port was empty and quiet aside from security guards who shooed reporters away. The woman said the facility — which sits on a pier jutting into the river, and is home to roughly a dozen helipads — was closed “because of the crash and because of many other things.”
The group of officers and emergency workers on the scene has dispersed, and reporters have been ushered into a building at the end of the pier, where officials are expected to brief the media soon.
It’s a dramatic view here at the end of the pier. The choppy water is still dotted with emergency-responder boats, and the river is framed by Jersey City’s skyscrapers, stretching high into the sky.
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This was the deadliest helicopter crash in the New York City area since at least 2018, when a sightseeing helicopter that was flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over. All five passengers drowned and only the pilot survived.
Tim Balk
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said in a statement that “six innocent souls have lost their lives and we pray for them and their families.” She added that the crash is “heartbreaking, and worse than we could have imagined.”
Mandy Bowlin and her 15-year-old daughter were on a Circle Line tour boat when they heard a boom behind them. They looked west and saw a helicopter falling from the sky. The aircraft’s rotor flew off, and then the cabin nose-dived into the water, she said. Bowlin saw other debris flying toward the boat, and worried for her daughter’s safety.
“We’re kind of shook up,” said Bowlin, 49, who is visiting from Chattanooga, Tenn. “It was scary.”
Bowlin the crash happened only moments after a Circle Line tour announcer said they were passing the site of the “Miracle on the Hudson,” where pilot Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009. As they did in 2009, the tour boat and several NY Waterway ferries changed direction and sailed for the crash site in case they could help.
A group of divers just emerged from the water and joined the emergency responders on the pier. A boat dropped off a load of diving equipment and headed back out to the water.
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From the walkway along the Hudson, Michelle Jordan and her daughter Annabel, visiting New York City from London, stared across the river to where emergency responders in boats were gathered on the New Jersey side, near the downed helicopter. “We saw all the emergency vehicles, so we came over,” Jordan said.
Reporters are waiting behind the yellow police tape at the end of the pier, but there has been little visible action in the water in the past few minutes. A police boat that has been stationed in the water near the wreck is returning to shore now. Several boats are still at the site of the crash, and it’s begun to rain.
At least three people who were in the helicopter when it crashed have died, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.
Rescue workers have pulled five people, including three children, from the water. A sixth victim, believed to be the pilot, is still missing, according to a senior law enforcement official.
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The last fatal helicopter crash in New York City was six years ago, but at least 32 people have died in helicopter crashes in the city since 1977, according to The Associated Press. In 2018, five sightseers drowned when a helicopter flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over. Only the pilot survived. In 2009, a sightseeing helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided with a private plane over the Hudson, killing nine.
Dozens of police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers gathered at the end of Pier 40 in Manhattan, just yards from where the helicopter plummeted into the Hudson. Past the pier, boats with emergency personnel circled the spot where the helicopter fell, obscuring the wreckage. Helicopters circled overhead.
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