Records reveal that the New York City helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River, killing all six people on board — including a visiting family from Spain — faced mechanical problems months before the fatal incident.
The Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV, operated by New York Helicopter, had faced a major mechanical issue involving its transmission assembly back in September, according to Federal Aviation Administration data. The helicopter, which was manufactured in 2004, had already logged 12,728 flight hours by the time it underwent repairs. An investigation has already been launched to find out the exact reason the helicopter suddenly fell from the sky and crashed into the river, killing all on board.
Investigation Launched
The inquiry will probe the pilot's background, the partially recovered wreckage, and the New York City-based company that operates the sightseeing flights. Investigators will also probe the maintenance history of the crashed helicopter, including whether two recent FAA-issued airworthiness directives for Bell 206L model helicopters were properly completed.
The first directive, released in December 2022, required inspections and potential replacement of the main rotor blades due to a risk of "delamination" — a condition where the internal layers of the blade separate because of material fatigue, damage, or defects. If not addressed, this issue could lead to rotor blade failure.
A second directive, issued in May 2023, mandated testing and possible replacement of tail rotor shafts on eight helicopter models, including the one that crashed. The FAA issued the alert after a helicopter suffered a tail rotor drive failure caused by a joint malfunction.
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Friday that the rotors from the crashed helicopter have not yet been recovered. NYPD divers continue to search for multiple twisted fragments of the aircraft.
Disturbing video footage shows the helicopter breaking apart in midair before plummeting into the river, with one rotor still visibly spinning as other pieces scattered and hit the water in different directions.
Harrowing End
The helicopter took off from Manhattan's Downtown Skyport around 1:50 p.m., carrying Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children — 10-year-old Augustin, 8-year-old Mercedes, and 4-year-old Victor.
The family, originally from Barcelona, Spain, was flown by 36-year-old Sean Johnson, a Navy SEAL veteran who had recently relocated to New York City to pursue a budding career in aviation.
According to Homendy, the crash took place around 25 minutes into the sightseeing tour. This, however, isn't the first time one of the company's helicopters has gone down in the Hudson River.
In 2013, another Bell 206 helicopter operated by the same company made an emergency landing in the Hudson after losing power while carrying four Swedish tourists. Remarkably, all passengers and the pilot survived.
At the time, New York Helicopter CEO Michael Roth told the Wall Street Journal that the helicopter received regular daily inspections but admitted they had "no idea" what caused the in-flight failure.
Now, 12 years later, Roth once again says he has "no idea" what went wrong. "I'm absolutely devastated," Roth told The New York Post after the crash.
"The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren't on the helicopter. And I haven't seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business," he said.
"The only thing I could guess — I got no clue — is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don't know. This is horrific. But you gotta remember something, these are machines and they break."
