Helicopter crashes into New York’s Hudson River, killing family of Spanish tourists
A helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between New York and the New Jersey waterfront on Thursday (April 10, 2025), killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists, in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., officials said.
The victims included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and three children, in addition to the pilot, a person briefed on the investigation.
Photos posted on the helicopter company’s website showed the couple and their children smiling as they boarded just before the flight took off.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 pm and the bodies — had been recovered and removed from the water. The flight north along the Manhattan skyline and then back south toward the Statue of Liberty lasted less than 18 minutes.
Video of the crash showed parts of the aircraft tumbling through the air into the water near the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey. A witness there, Bruce Wall, said he saw it “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the helicopter as it fell.
Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel. Recovery crews hoisted the mangled helicopter out of the water just after 8 p.m. using a floating crane.
Video posted to social media showed parts of the chopper splashing into the water, and the overturned aircraft was submerged, with rescue boats circling it.
The skies were overcast at the time, but visibility over the river was not substantially impaired. Rescue crews had to deal with 45-degree water temperatures.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, including by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police departments. It was initially developed for the U.S. Army before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate.
The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the river. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on nearby streets with their lights flashing.
The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.
Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.
A medical transport plane killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighbourhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington — the deadliest US air disaster in a generation.
The crashes and other close calls have left some people worried about the safety of flying.
