Spanish Siemens chief and family killed in Hudson helicopter crash

Heartbreaking photos emerge of the CEO of the Spanish branch of Siemens and his family posing in front of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter and strapped inside the aircraft moments before it plunged into the Hudson River.

Six people died when the helicopter crashed into the Hudson River.

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The head of the Spanish branch of the technology company Siemens and his family were identified as five of the victims who were killed on the helicopter that plunged into the Hudson River Thursday, the New York Post reports.

Agustin Escobar, president and CEO of Siemens in Spain, his wife and their three children were killed in the crash in which a tourist chopper plunged into the river after it broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront.

Photos on New York Helicopter Tours website show the bundled up five family members smiling in front of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter and strapped inside the aircraft.

Agustin Escobar, his wife and their three children posing in front of the helicopter before the tragic crash. Picture: New York Helicopter Tours LLC

The New York Fire Department said it received a report of the crash at 3.17pm.

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.

The family in the chopper moments before the crash. Picture: New York Helicopter Tours LLC

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

Footage shared to social media captured the helicopter spiralling out of the sky before plummeting into the Hudson, with others showing broken off chopper parts splashing down in various parts of the water.

The fire department said it had units on scene performing rescue operations. Multiple rescue boats were seen on video circling the aircraft.

Eric Campoverde, 21, told the Post he saw the helicopter rapidly fall out of the sky at a 45-degree angle and then plunge into the Hudson.

Debris floats in the water at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River.

“It was going fast. It fell in seconds, like the motor lost power. It took seconds to fall from the sky,” he said.

“After the splash, the helicopter was above the water for a slight second but it submerged very quickly. It was maybe on top of the water for three or four seconds before it went under. It was fast.”

The rescue craft were near a site close to the Manhattan waterfront, near the end of a long maintenance pier for one of the ventilation towers for the Holland Tunnel. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on streets near the scene with their lights flashing.

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.

The river was also the scene of the dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways aircraft safely landed in the water with all 155 people on board escaping with their lives and was dubbed “Miracle on the Hudson.”

“Due to a helicopter crash in the Hudson River, in the vicinity of the West Side Highway and Spring Street, expect emergency vehicles and traffic delays in the surrounding areas,” the New York Police Department wrote in a statement.

A fire service spokesperson said that “we got the call at 3.17pm (6am AEST)” about a “helicopter in the water”, but was unable to give other information.