The couple that was killed in a helicopter crash on Thursday in the Hudson River were prominent executives from Spain who were with their three young children for a birthday celebration.
The crash was reported to the authorities around 3:30 p.m. The children were also killed in the accident. Investigators are still working to discover why the incident happened.
The New York Times reported that the crash happened the day before one of the children’s ninth birthday.
The couple killed in a helicopter crash near New York City on Thursday were well-known executives from Spain who were on vacation with their three young children, who also died in the accident along with the pilot.
Relatives said it was the day before the daughter’s ninth birthday.
Spanish officials identified the husband as Agustín Escobar, and family members named the wife as Mercè Camprubí Montal. Their children were Agustín, 10, Mercè, 8 and Víctor, 4, the Camprubí family said in a text message, adding that Mercè would have turned 9 on Friday.
Their deaths were mourned in Barcelona, where the family had a home, according to officials.
“They are a well-known family,” Salvador Illa, the governor of Barcelona, said in a telephone interview. “He was an executive at a large international company, and also she belonged to a well-known family. Two members of her family were presidents of the Barcelona Football Club.”
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter accident,” Mr. Illa said.
The helicopter was taking the family on a tour of New York City when it fell out of the sky and hurtled into the Hudson River, also killing the pilot. Footage appeared to show pieces of the aircraft breaking off just before the fall.
New York City police commissioner Jessica S. Tisch told reporters that two of the passengers were still alive when they were pulled from the water. Unfortunately, they later died.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the incident “an unimaginable tragedy” in a post on X.
Las noticias que hoy nos llegan del accidente de helicóptero en el río Hudson son devastadoras.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 10, 2025
Cinco españoles de una misma familia, tres de ellos niños, y el piloto han perdido la vida. Una tragedia inimaginable.
Acompaño en el dolor a los allegados de las víctimas en este…
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop explained that “Jersey City continues to be the lead on investigation till we pass to NTSB.”
A helicopter has crashed in the Hudson River by Lower Manhattan in New York City, and fatalities have been reported, law enforcement sources have said.pic.twitter.com/lg5nd71eFz
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) April 10, 2025
The couple both worked for Siemens, a multinational technology company, according to CNN.
It lifted off from a Manhattan heliport and followed a familiar route: circling the Statue of Liberty, gliding north along the Hudson toward the George Washington Bridge and then turning south. About 16 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into the water, according to analysis by CNN and FlightRadar24.
Witnesses described the helicopter flipping and spiraling before crashing near the New Jersey shoreline upside down, scattering debris across the river.
“The helicopter was a little bit like nose down, slightly, and I saw the propeller separating from the helicopter. It kept spinning in the air alone. Nothing was attached to it,” Sarah Jane Raymond Ryer, who saw the crash unfold, told CNN affiliate WCBS. A video obtained by CNN shows the rotor blades detached from the helicopter and flying through the air.
Jersey City resident Jenn Lynk recalled hearing a startling noise. “It sounded honestly like an engine came out. I looked outside my window. I saw a few people running towards the water, and some people were acting pretty normal. So, I was like, ‘It might not be anything.’ Then I started to hear all the sirens come outside,” she told WCBS.
Federal aviation authorities had investigated the company operating the helicopter in two previous safety incidents, CNN reported.
In 2015, a pilot for the New York Helicopter Charter company was forced to land in New Jersey after hovering 20 feet in the air for a short time. An initial inspection showed there “may have been corrosion removed” from sections of the helicopter and that some of the helicopter’s component parts may have been deformed to an extent to be “considered unairworthy,” according to an FAA inspector at the time. The same helicopter was previously involved in a crash in Chile in 2010.
In 2013, a pilot for the company was forced to land a helicopter carrying four passengers on the water near Manhattan after hearing a “bang” that was followed by the “Engine Out warning horn.” The pilot inflated the helicopter’s floats and got the passengers to safety on a boat.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are looking into the incident.
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