Helicopter Crashes Into Hudson River, Killing Six

A sightseeing helicopter tumbled out of the sky and plunged into the Hudson River across from Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, killing all six people aboard, including three children, officials said.

Video footage showed the helicopter falling end over end and crashing into the water just off Jersey City, N.J., at high speed at about 3:15 p.m. Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang and seeing the helicopter hit the river without at least one of its rotor blades.

Two adults and three children from Spain — Agustín Escobar, an executive with the technology company Siemens, and his family — were pulled from the helicopter or the frigid river but none survived, a senior law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the crash. The pilot was also killed.

Two of the passengers were alive when divers pulled them from the water but later died, New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch, said at a news conference.

“Six innocent souls have lost their lives, and we pray for them and their families,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said.

It was the deadliest helicopter crash in New York City in at least seven years.

The helicopter, a Bell 206, was operated by New York Helicopter, which runs sightseeing tours for several hundred dollars a flight. The company’s chief executive, Michael Roth, said he did not know what had happened to the aircraft, which he had leased from a company in Louisiana. The National Transportation Safety Board was leading the investigation into the crash.