Federal investigators have identified evidence of a bird strike in the April 2025 crash of a tourist helicopter into the Hudson River that killed all six people aboard, including a prominent Spanish business executive and his family.
The National Transportation Safety Board recovered fragments of rotor blade foam and a severed bird wing roughly 600 meters northwest of the wreckage site, while Smithsonian Institution specialists identified remains of Brant and Canada geese on the rotor blades and horizontal stabilizer. Three eyewitness statements also placed birds in the area before the crash, which occurred just 16 minutes after the Bell 206L-4 departed a Manhattan heliport.
The victims were Agustín Escobar, a senior Siemens executive, his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, their three children aged 10, 8 and 4, and pilot Seankese Johnson. Relatives have filed negligence lawsuits against New York Helicopter Charter, New York Helicopter Tours, and owner Michael Roth. New York Helicopter Tours suspended all operations shortly after the accident.