Recently released video of the tragic helicopter crash in New York City, which resulted in the loss of a family of five, including three young kids, sheds light on the possible cause of the incident that occurred above the Hudson River.
The helicopter, carrying sightseers, crashed into the river at 3:15 p.m. last Thursday, claiming the lives of Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive from Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, their three young children, and the 36-year-old pilot.
The family had just landed in the city from Barcelona and were enjoying their first day exploring New York City, taking in views of the Statue of Liberty and cruising up to the George Washington Bridge.
The unidentified pilot from New York Helicopter radioed base to warn that they were running out of fuel just before the tragedy struck.
Harrowing footage of a rotor blade plummeting to the water has led aviation experts to believe the crash likely occurred because the main rotor blades separated from the aircraft and sliced the tail.
‘From the footage, it appears that the main rotor struck the body of the helicopter, cutting off the tail of the helicopter, which created an unrecoverable event,’ former military aviator and attorney Jim Brauchle of Motley Rice LLC told DailyMail.com.
‘The two main causes of this phenomenon are mechanical failure or excessive maneuvering. Still, a full investigation is needed to understand why this tragedy occurred.
‘Having previously represented the families of tourists killed during a helicopter tour over the Hudson River, my heart goes out to the families at this catastrophic time.’
Another expert told Fox 5 that in the case that the separating rotor blades sliced off the aircraft’s tail boom, the flight would have been unrecoverable.
‘If that articulating head actually separated from the aircraft, the aircraft was doomed. There’s no possibility of that aircraft ever having made a normal type of landing. It was going to crash,’ said Tristani.
‘In this particular case though, when you throw a blade, one blade or the entire head, no, you’re just a falling brick.’
Michael Roth, 71, who owns New York Helicopter which provided the tour and the chopper, said the aircraft was running out of fuel before it crashed.
‘He [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,’ Roth told The Telegraph.
Roth said he was devastated by the crash and agreed with other experts that the video appears to show the main rotor blades had broken off.
‘The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,’ he told the New York Post.
‘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.’
Heartbreaking photos showed the Escobar parents and their kids, aged four, five and 11, posing on the helipad and inside the aircraft before the crash.
The aircraft was operated by New York Helicopter, a local tour company. The chopper appeared to be a N216MH – a Bell 206L-4, according to Flight Radar.
The helicopter flew for approximately 16 minutes before going down into the water. It took off from the Wall Street Heliport and did a circle near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge at about 1000 feet.
Dramatic video showed the helicopter sinking into the water as emergency crews rushed to the scene.
Witnesses said they saw the chopper ‘split in half’ before it went down near Pier 40, with one man reporting the stricken aircraft making what sounded like a ‘sonic boom.’
‘Oh my god. Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh,’ said a terrified witness who watched the helicopter fall into the river.
Emergency responders were seen late Thursday night pulling the remnants of the destroyed helicopter from the murky water of the Hudson River. Photos showed a crane pulling mangled clumps of metal out of the river.
Jersey City Mayor Steven explained in a post on X that major parts of the aircraft have not yet been recovered, so dive teams will scour the Hudson River for the parts on Friday.
‘Recovery operations have been secured for the night. Major parts of the aircraft have not been recovered so dive operations by the NYPD and NJSP will resume tomorrow morning,’ he said.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others were taken to the hospital, where they ‘succumbed to their injuries,’ NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
At the time of the crash, it was cloudy with winds around 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph, CNN reported.
Surface visibility was considered good — 10 miles — but it was cloudy as a system is moving into the region, bringing light rain to the region this afternoon and evening. The water was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Other footage showed the chopper ‘flying erratically’ just before it fell into the water, while other clips showed pieces of the aircraft were seen flying off.
‘Our hearts go out to the families of those who were onboard,’ Mayor Eric Adams said. ‘All six have been removed from the water, and sadly all six victims have been pronounced deceased.’
Rashmi Kamkeri, a 30-year-old engineer, was working remotely from her apartment in Newport Park when she heard a deafening crash about 3:19 p.m. on Thursday.
‘It was horrifying,’ Kamkeri told DailyMail.com. ‘I thought it was thunder and ten seconds later I saw the helicopter 10 feet above the water falling and then it made a big splash and went underneath the water.
‘I panicked… then saw a piece of the helicopter fall into the water. The Waterway boat was moving and then it took a turn.
‘I was almost in tears praying that someone would come and save them. I wished there would be someone survives. I am so sad.’
Anna was walking her rescue dog Archie along the West Side Highway in the rain when she saw the emergency responders and lights across the river on the New Jersey side.
‘I saw the helicopter submerged in the water and then there was a-lot of commotion,’ she told DailyMail.com.
Another said: ‘One of my children said, ‘what’s that sound?’ I told him I didn’t know. My other child said, ‘Do you think it was an earthquake?’ ‘I said, ‘no we would feel it.’
‘My other child asked, ‘Do you think a building pancaked?”
The skies are often filled with both planes and helicopters that both fly private recreational, commercial and tourists flights.
Manhattan has multiple helipads that are used by people, including business executives, to get across the Metropolitan area.
At least 32 have been killed in helicopter crashes in New York City since 1977.
The most recent crash happened in 2018 when a chopper hit crashed into the East River, leaving five passengers dead.
The chopper crashed on March 11, 2018 when the tail of the aircraft got caught on the fuel shutoff lever, the NTSB said.
All the passengers on board drowned. They were identified as Daniel Thompson, 34, Tristian Hill, 29, Trevor Cadigan, 26, Brian McDaniel, 26, and Carla Vallejos-Blanco, 29.
