Six people were killed after a tourist helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York City, officials said.
Agustin Escobar, CEO of tech company Siemens’ infrastructure, his three children and his wife, were pulled out of helicopters and cold rivers, but none survived.
The helicopter reportedly crashed upside down by a river between Manhattan and New Jersey.
Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter “collapse” in the air. The propeller was still spinning when the aircraft fell, he said.
Leslie Camacho, a hostess at a riverside restaurant in Hoboken, New Jersey, said he saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it hit the water.
“A lot of smoke came out. It was spinning pretty quickly and it landed in the water really hard,” she said in a phone interview.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has identified the helicopter in question as a seven-seater single-engine bell 206. A video posted on social media shows that part of the chopper is splashed in the water, and the capsized aircraft sinks into rescue teams.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA say they will investigate the incident.
Manhattan skies are regularly filled with private recreational aircraft and both commercial and tourist airplanes and both planes and helicopters. Manhattan has several helipads that will bubble into destinations across the metropolitan area with business executives and others.
Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a 2009 collision between an airplane and a tourist helicopter that killed nine people, and a 2018 charter helicopter that went down to the East River and killed five people.
This is the latest famous aviation disaster in the United States. In late January, an American Airlines plane collided with a helicopter while descending in Washington, killing 67 people on board.
With recent crash falls and other close calls, many people in the US were worried about demanding greater regulations and safety precautions to minimize and prevent flights and fatal accidents.
