An air of grief loomed over Manhattan on Friday as city-dwellers struggled to process the tragic Hudson River helicopter crash that killed six people, including Siemens tech executive Agustín Escobar, who was visiting New York with his family in celebration of his daughter’s 9th birthday.
The aircraft, a Bell 206 operated by New York Helicopter, suddenly broke apart some 18 minutes after lifting off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport on Thursday afternoon.
During that time, the copter flew around the Statue of Liberty, cruised over to the George Washington Bridge, then turned around and headed south. It flew along the New Jersey side of the river before falling from the sky and landing upside down in the waters below, officials said.
All six people onboard, including the pilot, who was not identified, died in the crash. The victims also included Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three children, Agustín,11; Mercè, 8; and Víctor, 4.
Mayor Adams said Escobar traveled to the tristate area from Spain earlier this week for work, and was later joined by his family in the Big Apple to celebrate Mercè’s birthday. She would have turned 9 years old on Friday.
“This is a traumatic moment for the city,” Adams said during an appearance on Pix 11. “We come together during these moments, and I think that that is what’s great about the people of this city.”
But not just New Yorkers were left mourning. Sorrow sparked by the crash also permeated communities across Spain, particularly in Barcelona, where the family of five had a home.
“They are a well-known family,” Salvador Illa, the governor of the Catalonia region, told the New York Times. “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.”
Both Escobar and his wife worked for Siemens, a German-based technology company focused on “transforming industry, infrastructure and transportation,” according to its website. Escobar spent more than 27 years there, most recently as global CEO for rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, according to his LinkedIn.
Montal, meanwhile, worked at Siemens for 16 years. Since 2018, she served in a separate branch, Siemens Energy, as a digitalization manager and later as the manager of global commercialization.
“In memoriam of Agustin Escobar and his beloved family,” Joe Kaeser, retired president and CEO of Siemens AG said wrote X. “He was a good man. A loving husband, caring father and responsible manager. This tragedy tells us, not to waste time with things which don’t matter. Any day could be our last one.”
While the cause of the crash remained under investigation on Friday, video of the incident suggested a “catastrophic mechanical failure” occurred, leaving the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.
“They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened,” he added. “There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.”
With News Wire Services
