The Spanish CEO of one of the world’s largest technology businesses, together with his wife and three young children, died in a helicopter crash outside Manhattan on Thursday.
Agustin Escobar, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children, ages four, five, and eleven, died when their tourist flight to New York City crashed into the Hudson River. The 36-year-old pilot, who has not been identified, was also killed.
Escobar was the CEO of the Spanish operations of the European tech company Siemens.
According to the Daily Beast, the family traveled to New York City from Barcelona and was staying at the Hotel Riu Plaza.
Escobar was appointed CEO of Siemens Spain in November 2022. He’d been with the organization for about three decades.
“With Agustin Escobar, we have the best possible successor to lead, from now on, the company in Spain,” Escobar’s predecessor Miguel Angel Lopez stated at the time. “In recent years, his work has been key to Siemens’ success in the field of mobility and transport.”
In a press conference late Thursday afternoon, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said a Bell 206 helicopter flying for New York Helicopter Tours left the downtown Manhattan heliport at 2:59 p.m. ET.
Authorities added that approximately 15 minutes later, other callers reported a helicopter crash to 911. The airplane broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River in seconds, landing upside down.
Divers arrived near Pier 40 in Manhattan in minutes and performed emergency rescue measures, but four individuals died on the scene and two more died from their injuries at a nearby hospital.
According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the helicopter crashed while flying in the Special Flight Rules Area, which means there were no air traffic control services.
“Several minutes prior to entering the Special Flight Rules Area, Air Traffic Control from LaGuardia airport was providing support,” he said in a reply to X. “The FAA will have investigators on site tonight and we are also launching a Safety Review Team later tonight.”
Michael Roth, CEO of New York Helicopter Tours, told the New York Post that the tragedy had left him “devastated”.
“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, [is] that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,” stated the operator. “And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30-year career in the helicopter business. The only thing I could deduce—I had no idea—was that it either had a bird attack or the main rotor blades failed. I have no idea. I do not know.”
In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump expressed his sadness for the “terrible” incident.
“The footage of the accident is horrendous,” he wrote in an email. “God bless the families and friends of the victims.”