Authorities search for answers in deadly NYC tourist helicopter crash
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- The National Transportation Safety Board is on the scene to investigate the deadly helicopter crash into the Hudson River that killed six people.
A family of five from Spain, along with the helicopter's 36-year-old pilot, perished in the crash on Thursday afternoon.
Investigators with the NTSB arrived in Jersey City on Friday to get their first look at the wreckage so they can begin to reconstruct the mangled helicopter.
Divers will search the icy cold currents of the Hudson River, where aircraft parts including the rotor and tail rotor are still believed to be submerged in roughly 40 feet of water.
A Hoboken resident told Eyewitness News he believes he discovered part of the doomed chopper -- what looked like a seat cushion -- that washed up along the Jersey City and Hoboken coast about a half mile north of the crash site.
Maxwell Steffen Cameron-Jones happened upon it on Friday night, and called police.
"It's pretty hard to see that. Particularly a seat someone was sitting on when they lost their lives," he said.
The pilot, identified as Sean Johnson, had 788 hours of total flight time, but it is unclear how much in the Bell Helicopter.
On Friday, the NTSB chair acknowledged that the helicopter breaking apart mid-air is a serious concern, but stressed more investigation is necessary to determine why.
They are looking into witnesses reports of flocks of birds at the time of the crash, and all other reports. The NTSB again asked members of the public with any information to submit pictures and video to witness@ntsb.gov.
The crash was reported at 3:17 p.m. on the Jersey City side of the Hudson. The helicopter was on its sixth flight of the day.
Agustin Escobar, a Siemens executive from Barcelona, Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their children, ages 4, 8, and 10, were killed in the crash, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 8-year-old's birthday would have been Friday.
The sightseeing tour was part of the celebration for the wife's 40th birthday, according to Jersey City Mayor Fulop.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a post to X that the news was "devastating." He added, "Five Spaniards from the same family, three of them children, and the pilot have lost their lives. An unimaginable tragedy."
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the helicopter was operated by New York Helicopter Tours.
The company released an official statement on Friday, saying in part, "New York Helicopter Tours is profoundly saddened by the tragic accident and loss of life that occurred on April 10, 2025, involving one of our helicopters in the Hudson River."
"The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew has always been the cornerstone of our operations. Our immediate focus is supporting the families and their loved ones affected by this tragedy, as well as fully cooperating with the FAA and NTSB investigations," the statement said.
The Bell 206 appears to have taken off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport at 2:59 p.m. It went up to the George Washington Bridge before turning back south along the Jersey side of the river.
It went off radar at 3:25 p.m.
A video shared with Eyewitness News appeared to show pieces of the helicopter breaking apart and crashing into the water. Officials say the helicopter hit the water inverted, without a tail rotor or a main rotor blade.
What may have caused the crash
A crane vessel hoisted the crumpled wreckage of the helicopter out of the Hudson and onto a barge Thursday night.
Fulop said the main body of the aircraft is in the Army Corps of Engineers facility on Chapel Avenue, however major parts of the aircraft have still not been recovered.
Police fished out chunks of jagged metal that washed up to the Jersey City shore on Thursday, along with a life preserver, a seat and the personal effects of a family of five.
The NTSB will have to piece together what went wrong and what caused the rotors to break apart, dooming the 21-year-old helicopter and the six people aboard.
Video of the crash suggested that a "catastrophic mechanical failure" left the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps, told the Associated Press.
It is possible the helicopter's main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.
"They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened," Green said. "There's no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It's like a rock falling to the ground. It's heartbreaking."
The accidents and the noise caused by helicopters have repeatedly led some community activists and officials to propose banning or restricting traffic at Manhattan heliports.
Fulop said tours are constant and occur in a busy and heavily trafficked area. He hopes this will increase the dialogue and decrease traffic.
"Hopefully, this brings some more attention to it, that the fact beyond just noise, you have real safety concerns," Fulop said.
The FAA says they are temporarily halting all operations around the Hudson River crash site.
The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads from which business executives and others are whisked to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.
At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five died in 2018 when a charter helicopter offering "open door" flights went down into the East River.
New York Helicopters also owned a Bell 206 that lost power and made an emergency landing on the Hudson during a sightseeing tour in June 2013. The pilot managed to land safely and he and the passengers - a family of four Swedes - were uninjured. The National Transportation Safety Board found that a maintenance flub and an engine lubrication anomaly led to the power cutoff.
Thursday's crash was the first for a helicopter in the city since one hit the roof of a skyscraper in 2019, killing the pilot.
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