April 11 (UPI) — The family of five from Spain killed in a helicopter crash in New York City had hired a sightseeing company as part of a birthday celebration for one of the children, officials said Friday.
The Bell 206 sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River near Manhattan about 3:15 p.m. EDT Thursday, killing the family and the pilot. It took off from a Wall Street heliport.
The bodies of all six onboard were recovered from the water.
Killed were Agustin Escobar, a senior executive with the German-headquartered technology firm Siemens, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three young children.
The pilot hasn’t been identified.
The New York Post obtained images of the family before their takoeff.
“We know the ages of the young people involved — 4, 8 and 10 — and unfortunately the 8-year-old, it was his birthday today, so this was probably part of a normal tourist attraction of seeing the city from the skyline, but just a real unfortunate situation,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said on WNYW’s Good Day New York.
Camprubi Montal also was celebrating her 40th birthday this week.
The family arrived in New York from Barcelona earlier in the day, law enforcement sources told The New York Post.
Escobar was in New York City on business and had his family fly to New York City so they could “extend the trip a couple days in NYC,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop posted on X.
“The brother-in-law is flying in this A.M. and we are working with [the medical examiner] to expedite release of the family to fly back to Spain,” Fulop said. “Take a moment today and think about this family and your family. These situations are always very difficult and sad.”
Escobar was CEO of rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility Division.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash in which Agustin Escobar and his family lost their lives. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all their loved ones,” Siemens said in a statement.
The wreckage recovery continued through Friday with divers used.
The plane was owned by New York Helicopter Tours, which has been in business for 30 years. The website noted their pilots have “logged thousands of flight hours.”
CEO Michael Roth told The Telegraph the pilot “called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive. We’re all devastated.”
He told the New York Post: “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. The only thing I could guess — I got no clue — is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know.”
The company had posted on Facebook an image of one of its helicopters in February.
The chopper had taken off from the heliport at 2:59 p.m. It then went south and then turned to fly north up the Hudson River along the Manhattan shoreline.
At 3:08 p.m., it reached the George Washington Bridge and turned to fly south along the New Jersey shoreline. Shortly later the “aircraft lost control and hit the water just a few feet off the coast of the pier, a park in Hoboken,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a news conference Thursday.
Some witnesses told NBC News they heard a loud noise.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with help from other agencies.
Aviation analyst Jeff Guzzetti said on NBC’s Today on Friday: “There was some sort of sudden in-flight failure that occurred to the point at which the pilot didn’t have an opportunity to make a forced landing or a mayday call, so something happened abruptly.
The Bell 206 includes a military version. There were 7,300 manufactured from 1962 to 2017 by Bell Helicopter, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas.
