‘Everything is on the table’ as NTSB investigates deadly Hudson River tour helicopter crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), during a news conference Friday at Jersey City Hall, said “everything is on the table” and it was not “rul[ing] anything out” in its investigation into the fatal crash of a tour helicopter in the Hudson River Thursday. The NTSB will look into witness reports of a large flock of birds in the area before the crash.
The Bell 206 helicopter, flying for the tour company New York Helicopters, went down in the Hudson River near the Jersey City, New Jersey, coastline at about 3:17 p.m. Thursday, according to New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and NYPD divers entered the water within minutes, pulling the pilot and members of a family visiting from Spain, including Siemens executive Agustin Escobar; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal; and their three young children, from the water. All six aboard were pronounced dead.
Escobar was in the country on a business trip, and his family flew out to extend the vacation in celebration of Montal’s 40th birthday, according to a statement from Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop. The children were all under 11 years old.
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Though the pilot’s identity has not yet been released by officials, NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy said during the news conference that the agency has the pilot’s logbooks and confirmed he held a commercial pilot certificate with rotorcraft and instrument ratings.
“The pilot reported 450 hours of total flight experience on his most recent medical, which was issued on Sept. 20, 2024,” Homendy said. “As of March 29, 2025, the pilot had accumulated about 788 hours of total flight time.”
The NTSB is still calculating the pilot’s flight time in the Bell helicopter because the pilot previously flew a Robinson 44, according to Homendy.
NYPD divers are still searching for pieces of the aircraft, including the main rotor, tail rotor, main transmission, roof structure and tail structure.
However, Homendy said witness reports have already aided investigators in the agency’s preliminary investigation.
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Homendy noted the NTSB was “aware of reports” of a “large flock of birds” in the area shortly before the crash.
“We discussed it this morning,” she said. “It’s something we will be looking into.”
The NTSB is asking the public to submit photos, videos and testimony “if something struck [them] as different” or gave them “pause.”
As far as a timeline goes, the NTSB said it is still ironing out the details of what could have gone wrong.
The FAA confirmed the helicopter took off from the downtown Manhattan heliport at 2:59 p.m. and flew south before flying north along the Manhattan shoreline.
At 3:08 p.m., the helicopter reached the George Washington Bridge and then turned again to fly south along the New Jersey shoreline, according to the FAA.
Shortly after, the pilot lost control of the aircraft and hit the water just a few feet off the shore near Hoboken.
New York Helicopter Tour CEO Michael Roth, whose company operated the helicopter, told The Telegraph the pilot radioed about needing fuel but never arrived.
It is unclear when the call went out about the fuel.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement Thursday the tour helicopter was in the special flight rules area established in New York, which means no air traffic control services were being provided when the helicopter crashed.
However, Duffy confirmed “several minutes prior to entering the special flight rules area, air traffic control from LaGuardia Airport was providing support,” according to the statement.
When asked about the safety of air tours, Homendy said the NTSB issued “an entire report on Part 91 operations with respect to revenue passengers.”
“We believe in one level of safety strongly, and that may not look like regulation for a major commercial airline, but we do believe that they should be regulated,” she said. “We have issued recommendations in the past on crash-resistant recorders. We’ve issued numerous regular recommendations on safety management systems, on particular regulations for Part 91.”
The question was asked after Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and a number of other officials expressed concern about tour helicopters.
“Staten Island residents remain deeply concerned about the frequent low-flying tour helicopters whose flight paths continue to frequently pass over their neighborhoods at all hours of the day,” Malliotakis wrote in a statement. “To prevent another tragedy, these tourist helicopter flights over NYC must be more heavily regulated and restricted, if not come to an end entirely.”
Homendy added it is “too early” to speculate about what the NTSB will recommend as a result of the investigation but noted “this is a concern that we’ve raised for a number of years.”
“Certainly, we raised this after the FlyNYON crash in a specific report. … It was very comprehensive about our recommendations, specifically about air tour operators,” she said.
On March 11, 2018, a helicopter operated by a different New York helicopter-sightseeing company, FlyNYON, crashed into the East River, killing all five passengers onboard.
Passengers were allegedly “unable to free themselves from the harnesses they were wearing,” resulting in a lawsuit settlement of $90 million, Fox News previously reported.
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Richard Vance, the pilot, was using a standard seat belt and was the lone survivor.
The FAA and NTSB will continue to investigate the Hudson River helicopter crash.
Mayor Fulop confirmed in an X post a brother-in-law of the family that died in the wreck was flying into the country Friday morning.
“We are working with [the medical examiner] to expedite [the] release of the family to fly back to Spain,” Fulop wrote in the post.
Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita and The Associated Press contributed to this report.