An executive of European technology company Siemens, Agustin Escobar, his wife, and young children have been confirmed dead in a tourist helicopter that crashed into New York City’s Hudson River in the United States.
The helicopter plummeted upside down into the river on Thursday, April 10, 2025, killing all six people on board.
Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their children – aged 4, 5, and 11 years old – have been identified as victims in the crash along with the pilot, aged 36, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Escobar was named as an executive of Siemens’ division in Spain and Southwest Europe in 2022, according to a statement from the technology conglomerate.
The former head of Siemens’ Spanish arm, Miguel Angel Lopez, spoke highly of Escobar in the release, saying his work was “key” to the company’s success.
The identity of the pilot has not yet been released.
The family was visiting New York City from Barcelona, Spain, two Spanish officials disclosed.
Video of the crash showed what appeared to be a large object plunging into the river, followed seconds later by what appeared to be a helicopter blade.
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Afterwards, emergency and police boats were seen circling around a patch of river where the helicopter was submerged, with only what appeared to be the aircraft’s landing gear poking above the water’s surface.
The Bell 206 chopper, operated by New York Helicopter Tours, departed at about 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) from a downtown helicopter pad and flew north over the Hudson River, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
It turned south when it reached the George Washington Bridge and crashed minutes later, hitting the water upside down and sinking near Lower Manhattan about 3:15 p.m., just off Hoboken, New Jersey, Tisch added.
Dani Horbiak, a 29-year-old resident of Jersey City, New Jersey, said she witnessed the crash from her window while working from home.
She said: “I looked out my window right here, and I saw the helicopter falling to pieces, and I watched multiple pieces splashed down into the river below, and I was wondering what happened.
“But I’m putting the pieces together. It does sound like I was maybe hearing the propeller smacking into something.”
Horbiak said she was “shaken” by the incident and later called emergency services, which said it had already dispatched responders to the scene.
New York Helicopter Tours, which offers sightseeing flights for as little as $114 per person on its website, did not respond immediately to Reuters’ request for comment about the crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the tour helicopter was in a Special Flight Rules Area established in New York, which means no air traffic control services were being provided when it crashed.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB leading the investigation.
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