The owner of the NYC Helicopter Tour Company claimed that on his way back to base for fuel before the fateful Chopper crashed into the Hudson River, he killed all six people, including five families.
Michael Ross, CEO of New York's helicopter tour, says the aircraft pilots radioed about the need for more fuel minutes before tourist choppers plunged into muddy water on Thursday.
“he [the pilot] He landed, needed fuel and was supposed to take about three minutes to arrive, but after 20 minutes he called it not arrived.” I told the telegraph.
The five passengers have been identified as visiting the Big Apple on their vacation as Spanish families.
Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mels Campulvi Montal and their three children were killed along with an unidentified pilot.
Escobar was the global CEO of Railway Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, and his wife worked as the global commercialization manager for Siemens Energy at Energy Technology Company.
Four victims were declared dead at the scene and two more were declared dead at the hospital, officials said.
A brave photo on the New York Helicopter Tour website shows Escobar, Montal and children being tied up inside the aircraft, smiling in front of the Bell 206L-4 Long Ranger IV helicopter.
Ross said he learned about the tragedy from one of his workers in a downtown heliport at the company, where he heard about the crash, without knowing that he was a helicopter.
“Then one of my pilots flew over Hudson and saw the helicopter turned upside down,” he told the outlet.
Ross has revealed he has previously been “absolutely devastated” to the Post due to the fatal incident in which all six people, including three children on board.
“It's devastation,” he said. “I'm a father and grandfather and I'm in devastation to have a child there. I'm in devastation.”
Ross doesn't provide the cause of the crash, only gives him his perspective from what he sees in footage of the midday catastrophe.
“The only thing I know from watching the video of a helicopter falling, where the main rotor blade was not in the helicopter,” Ross said. “And I've never seen anything like that in the business of 30 years, helicopter business. The only thing I can guess is I didn't get a clue – it's a bird strike or a main rotor blade that failed. I don't know. I don't know.”
According to FDNY officials, the Bell 206 chopper was split in half when he flew through the waterway separating New York and New Jersey around 3:15pm.
The video caused a huge splash near Pier 40 on West Houston Street and West Street, swooping upside down to noisy waters.
The helicopter propellers were spun individually out of control in the river after an instant.
Witnesses said they heard the “sound of a boom” at the moment of shock.
Authorities began cleaning up debris fields from the river when they investigated the cause of the crash.
The broken body of the tourist helicopter was lifted from the cold waters of Hudson late Thursday night.
Diving operations will resume on Friday to retrieve additional portions of the wreckage.
