The pilot involved in the fatal helicopter crash in the Hudson River was a veteran Navy SEAL, who had just last month shared an eerie video of himself confidently flying the same model of helicopter over Lower Manhattan. Sean Johnson, 36, was piloting the helicopter that killed Siemens CEO Agustin Escobar and his family after it crashed into Hudson River on Thursday.
“When it all comes together…,” Johnson posted along with the now-eerie Facebook footage, which showed him in a Bell 206 helicopter. Friends praised him in the comments, with one saying he was “living the dream.” Johnson had recently relocated to New York City to continue his aviation career.
Navy Seal Lost Control of Helicopter
On Thursday, Johnson was flying a Bell 206 helicopter for a sightseeing tour with Escobar and his family including his wife and three children who arrived from Barcelona. Before moving to New York, he had lived in several states, including Illinois, Virginia, and Montana.
It remains unclear whether the helicopter seen in Johnson’s Facebook video was the same involved in this week’s tragic crash.
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Johnson, along with the tourist family —Escobar, his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their children aged 4, 8, and 10 — all lost their lives when the helicopter broke apart mid-flight and plummeted into the Hudson River.
Johnson had “always wanted to fly,” his wife, Kathryn Johnson, told Gothamist. “ I’m just at loss for words,” she told the outlet. “I don’t even know what happened.”
Before the tragic flight, Escobar, Montal, and their children were seen smiling in front of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter in heartbreaking images that now appear on the New York Helicopter Tours website.
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Shortly after takeoff, the 36-year-old pilot radioed a warning that the helicopter was low on fuel.
Just minutes later, disaster unfolded as the aircraft broke apart midair while flying over the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey around 3:15 p.m., according to FDNY officials.
Happy Family Killed Unexpectedly
Escobar has since been identified as the Global CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility. His wife, Merce Montal Costa, according to her LinkedIn profile, worked as a global commercialization manager at Siemens Energy.
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She was also the granddaughter of Agustí Montal Costa, a former president of the FC Barcelona football club.
Witnesses said that the helicopter carrying Escobar and his family appeared to lose parts of the helicopter as it plunged into the water.
“But you could literally see that the propeller just snapped right off. You can see it snap off, and then it just came straight down,” witness Charles McSorley said.
The helicopter had been airborne for just 16 minutes after taking off from the Wall Street Heliport and flying near the Statue of Liberty before crashing into the water.
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Dani Horbiak told ABC News that she saw the helicopter “drop from the sky” while watching from her apartment. “I heard five or six loud noises that sounded almost like gunshots in the sky and saw pieces fall off, then watched it fall into the river,” she said.
The cause of the helicopter crash is still unclear, as rescue teams were seen retrieving twisted wreckage from the water late Thursday night. Michael Roth, CEO of New York Helicopter Charter and owner of the tour company, told the New York Post after the incident that he was “completely heartbroken.”
“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.
