[HIGHTECHDUDE]

Apparently, the main rotor and tail boom separated mid-air. Rotor blades were fully detached from the fuselage (Jesus Nut failure??) but continued spinning as they fell...

MANHATTAN, (April 10, 2025) — At this time (15:30 ET), numerous emergency crews are actively responding at the scene along the Hudson River after a Bell 206 helicopter suddenly began to fall from the sky and crashed into the water. Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft spiraling before impact.

So far, six victims have been pulled from the river and has been confirmed dead by first responders, who are working tirelessly to assess and assist everyone involved. The identities of the victims have not yet been released. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown, and investigators are working to determine what led to the incident.

Agustin Escobar, President and CEO of Siemens in Spain, along with his wife and their three children, were identified as the victims of the helicopter that plunged into the Hudson River.

The New York Helicopter Tours website featured a photo of the family of five posing in front of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter.

Law enforcement reported that the family had arrived in Manhattan from Barcelona earlier that day.

The pilot’s identity remains unknown, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

This is still a developing story —

FlightAware

[Drastic85]

One pilot and a family of Spaniards.

[WonderMomma]

Source: https://apnews.com/article/new-york-...3d92dcbf05a28d

NEW YORK (AP) — A sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing six people, including a family of Spanish tourists, in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., officials said.

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.

Video 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 skies were overcast at the time, but visibility over the river was not substantially impaired. Rescue crews had to deal with 45-degree water temperatures.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, including by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police departments. It was initially developed for the U.S. Army before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.


The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate.

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 nearby streets with their lights flashing.

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with 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.

A medical transport plane killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington — the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.

The crashes and other close calls have left some people worried about the safety of flying.

[Mr.NoCredit]

Seriously. It looks like it was shot down missing the whole tail section. Crashed!?! Full plummet with zero controllability.

I’m really curious as to the why it’s damaged like that to begin with.

[shazrand]

Damn, No sexy dead body pics yet.

[shazrand]

Originally Posted by shazrand ↗

Damn, No sexy dead body pics yet.

Of the mom, not the kiddos obviously. Gotta have standards.

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Drastic85 ↗

One pilot and a family of Spaniards.

The victims were identified as Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive who was the CEO of Siemens Mobility Southwest Europe, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children, aged 4, 5, and 11.

The family was on a vacation sightseeing tour, having taken off from the Wall Street Heliport. The flight path included a loop near the Statue of Liberty and a route up the Hudson to the George Washington Bridge before the crash near Hoboken, New Jersey.

Two of them were rescued alive but died at the Hospital.

The sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing six people, was a Bell 206L LongRanger, a common single-engine aircraft long used for law enforcement missions, medical lifts, newsgathering and aerial tourism.

The 206L has been in use for decades; its maker, Bell Textron, an aviation company based in Texas, took it out of production less than 10 years ago. With upkeep, the model is seen as safe and reliable, according to Greg Feith, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator who has flown one.




main rotor striking the tail boom?

[Ady347]

All aboard!

[kellyhound]

Pieces of the helicopter that crashed are now washing up in the Hudson, on the Jersey City side.

[Gore Whore]

Poor kids