“Everyone on board, including the pilot, was confirmed dead shortly after a Bell 206L Longranger helicopter crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday. According to information provided to the New York Times, it was Agustín Escobar, a senior executive at the technology company Siemens in Spain, and his wife who were on board when the helicopter plunged into the river. Also on board were their three children, aged between four and eleven years old.
“Our thoughts are with the families of those on board,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference. He also mentioned that the victims were tourists from Spain, and that they had now been pulled from the water and pronounced dead. Agustín Escobar was appointed head of Siemens in Spain and Southwestern Europe in 2022, according to ABC News. The family actually lives in Barcelona and was in New York on a temporary visit.
A witness who was on a tourist boat on Thursday afternoon said they heard a loud bang, and then saw the helicopter fall from the sky.
The flight was operated by the company New York Helicopters. In 2013, one of their helicopters was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. On board were four tourists from Sweden, all of whom survived without injury. In 2016, a helicopter crashed while hovering near the ground, and in 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy, according to the New York Times.
“I am devastated,” said the company’s CEO, Michael Roth, but the cause of the crash is still unclear. In a social media post, Donald Trump stated that the details of what happened, and how it happened, would be announced shortly.
Since 1977, at least 32 people have died in helicopter accidents in the city, according to the New York Times. The most recent incident was in 2018, when five people died when a helicopter fell into the East River east of Manhattan. In 2009, nine people died when a sightseeing helicopter collided with a private plane.”
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