Earlier this week, a helicopter carrying a family of five tragically crashed into the Hudson River in New York.
All five passengers, along with the pilot, perished in the accident.
The family, identified as Siemens executive Agustín Escobar from Barcelona, Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children, were traveling to New York for a specific reason that has now been disclosed.
The accident happened at 3:17 PM Eastern Time on April 10. The helicopter, which New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed was operated by New York Helicopters, crashed into the Hudson River.
New York Helicopters released a statement saying, “The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew has always been the cornerstone of our operations.”
Michael Roth, the 71-year-old owner of the helicopter, told The Telegraph: “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.”
The investigation is ongoing, but it is known that the flight lasted about 18 minutes. Data reveals the aircraft flew north along the Manhattan skyline and then headed south towards the Statue of Liberty.
Shortly after, the helicopter fell from the sky, crashing into the river near the shoreline of Jersey City.
PA News reports that the family was in New York to celebrate one of their children’s ninth birthday, as confirmed by officials.
Mr. Escobar was in the city for business purposes, and his family joined him to extend the visit.
Mayor Eric Adams commented on the child’s birthday, which was on Friday, April 11, telling Fox 5: “So this is probably part of the normal tourist attraction of seeing the city from the skyline.
“But it’s just a real unfortunate situation. And our heart goes out to the family members.”
An eyewitness named Max shared his account with ABC News, describing how he heard and then witnessed the crash.
Max recounted: “It sounded like a sonic boom so I look up and literally I saw helicopter splitting in 2, with the rotor flying off in the sky it was going so fast and it just went straight into the water.
“Nothing came up afterwards it must have just sunk and that was it, and then I just waited here and like five minutes later we started seeing the police and stuff come.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”