The pilot of the doomed tourist helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River was remembered as a driven Navy veteran who died “doing what he loved,” friends and loved ones said Saturday.
“Flying wasn’t just his passion — it was his purpose. He found pure joy in the skies, and it was there that he felt most alive,” Tara Boethin said about Seankese “Sean” Johnson, who was flying the Bell 206 LongRanger IV that appeared to break apart in mid-air, overturn and drop from the sky, hitting the water upside down on Thursday afternoon.
The National Safety Transportation Board was trying to determine what caused the crash Saturday. NYPD divers were using sonar to locate the copter’s main rotor and tail rotor, which flew off the chopper before it crashed, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Friday afternoon press conference. The entire roof structure is also missing.
“Sean had an unmatched ability to lift others up, always ready to listen, to offer support, and to give just the right amount of encouragement to help others chase their dreams,” Boethin said on a GoFundMe post seeking donations for Johnson’s family.
By Saturday afternoon, more than $16,000 had been raised on the site within 16 hours.
Tourists Agustin Escobar, the CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three young children Agustín Jr., 10, Mercè, 8, and Víctor, 4, were also killed in the crash. The family came to New York City to the birthday of one of their children, Mayor Adams said Friday. Camprubi Montal was also celebrating a birthday, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said.
A video on Johnson’s Facebook page posted last month shows him flying a Bell 206 helicopter over the Manhattan skyline.
“When it all comes together,” the 36-year-old pilot wrote.
His wife was left stunned by the news.
“I’m just at a loss for words. I don’t even know what happened,” Kathryn Johnson told Gothamist. “It’s just hard right now.”
The couple had been separated for a few months after Johnson moved to New York, but the two remained close and she had spoken to Seankese just the day before the crash, she told reporters.
Johnson radioed moments before plummeting into the water that he was desperately low on fuel and was heading back to the helipad, New York Helicopter CEO Michael Roth told The Telegraph.
Johnson made the radio transmission just before the 3:15 p.m. crash on the New Jersey side of the river. The helicopter took off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in lower Manhattan at about 2:50 p.m.
“He [the pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,” Roth told The Telegraph. “I got a call from my manager and my downtown heliport and she said she heard there was a crash, and then my phone blew up from everybody [calling]. Then one of my pilots flew over the Hudson and saw the helicopter upside down.”
Johnson first took his passengers up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge, where the copter turned around and then headed back south, flying along the New Jersey side of the river before suddenly dropping upside-down into the river near Hoboken, Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday.
The flight lasted less than 18 minutes, officials said.
Johnson grew up in Chicago, longtime friends said. He joined the Navy in 2006 and served until 2018, achieving the rank of Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class, Defense Department records show. He was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan from 2007 to 2011 and in San Diego from 2011 to 2018, serving in the Special Warfare Unit, the Special Warfare Logistics Support Unit and the Coastal Riverine Squadron.
Niko Tiapula, who served with Johnson on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier for three years, said the pilot had “a work ethic unlike any other.”
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Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News
The mangled wreckage of a helicopter is lifted from the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey after it crashed on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News
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The mangled wreckage of a helicopter is lifted from the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey after it crashed on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
“Everyone that he’s ever been around with he’s always been very nice, very outgoing,” Tiapula told ABC Eyewitness News.
Remi Adeleke, who also served in the Navy with Johnson, was amazed by the pilot’s “spirit of resilience.”
“[He had a] heart that always looked out for others,” Adeleke wrote on Facebook. “Even after we both left the Navy, we stayed close — regular calls, meetups, and texts. He’d keep me updated every step of the way through pilot school, sharing milestones and progress.
“He died having achieved the dream he spoke about all those years ago in that SEAL Team workspace,” Adeleke wrote. “He was so proud, and I was proud of him.”
The NTSB’s Homendy said Johnson had a commercial pilot certificate and had logged 788 hours of flight time by the end of March, although it wasn’t immediately clear if all of that flight time was in the same helicopter that crashed.
“This is the first full day of our investigation, and as you can see, our investigators are still out there,” Homendy told reporters Friday. “We have a lot of information, but we do not speculate. We need to confirm the information. That is a process that takes time.”
Avenues of investigation will include “reports of a large flock of birds in the area shortly before the crash,” Homendy said. Early speculation before the NTSB arrived was that the helicopter fell victim to a bird strike.
