Siemens top manager and his family killed as tourist helicopter crashes in the Hudson River

A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, near lower Manhattan, killing six people, according to officials. The helicopter was completely submerged prompting a major mobilisation of emergency personnel to respond to the crisis.

Agustín Escobar, the chief executive for rail infrastructure for the technology company Siemens, his three children and his wife were pulled from the helicopter or the frigid river but none survived.

The helicopter reportedly broke apart midair and crashed upside down in the river, between Manhattan and New Jersey.  

Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and that the dead had been recovered and removed from the water.

Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.

Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.

“There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard,” she said in a phone interview.

The helicopter in question was identified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a seven seater, single engine Bell 206. Videos posted to social media showed parts of the chopper splashing into the water, and the overturned aircraft was submerged, with rescue boats circling it.

The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the river. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on streets near the scene with their lights flashing.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA say they will investigate the incident.

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with both planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.

Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.

This is the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the US. In late January, an American Airlines plane crashed in Washington DC killing 67 people on board.

The crashes and other close calls have left many people worried about the safety of flying, and call for greater regulation and safety precautions to be instated to minimise and prevent fatal accidents.