The investigation regarding the tragic NYC helicopter crash that claimed the lives of six people after breaking apart mid-air and plunging into the Hudson River is still ongoing.
Videos of the moment the plane crashed show the rotor indeed detaching from the helicopter.
“Hudson River Helicopter Crash video shows that the rotor blades were fully detached from the fuselage but still spinning. This likely was NOT engine failure,” a witness said.
Experts argue that the reason is a faulty “Jesus nut,” the single bolt that holds the entire rotor system together in helicopters.
The victims were identified as Agustín Escobar, Siemens’ chief executive for rail infrastructure, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, their three children, and pilot Seankese Johnson.
The helicopter that was supposed to take the family from Spain sightseeing over the city was operated by New York Helicopter, a company offering sightseeing tours for several hundred dollars per flight.
Sources close to the investigation claim the helicopter was leased from a Louisiana-based company, called Meridian Helicopters.
The New York Helicopter owner, Michael Roth, said, “We’re all devastated. Every employee in our company is devastated. My wife has not stopped crying.
“The death of the child, of any human being, is a monumental disaster.”
He added: “He [the pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,” he said.”
In the past, the company has faced mechanical failures and crashes. In 2013, a sightseeing helicopter run by the company and carrying a Swedish family of four lost power during the flight and was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River near Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Hudson River Helicopter Crash video shows that the rotor blades were fully detached from the fuselage but still spinning. This likely was NOT engine failure. pic.twitter.com/uomJlEt7n7
— Box Cat DGAF (@cgraft) April 10, 2025
At the time, the pilot realized the engine had failed and managed to make a forced landing. Luckily, no one was injured.
Two years later, another aircraft operated by the same company crashed in northern New Jersey. The helicopter lost control just 20 feet above the ground.
The crash was linked to a hidden faulty part concealed by previous owners. The same company, Meridian Helicopters, leased both the earlier Bell 206 and the one in Thursday’s fatal crash.
According to AP, New York Helicopter has been through a bankruptcy over the last eight years and faces ongoing lawsuits over alleged debts.
In December, one of their helicopter was repossessed due to unpaid lease payments.
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