A routine sightseeing flight turned tragic Thursday when a helicopter carrying six people nosedived into the Hudson River, sending a terrifying plume of water skyward and leaving no survivors.
Startling video footage, captured by a stunned onlooker, showed the moment the New York Helicopter aircraft appeared to break apart in midair before smashing into the frigid waters near Hoboken around 3:20 pm Witnesses were horrified as the chopper’s tail and rotor system seemed to detach just moments before impact.
Nicholas Bahamonde, 34, witnessed the devastating moment unfold from his Jersey City apartment.
“I look up to the left, and I saw the tail rotor break off of the helicopter, so it was already split in the air, and then the front main part of the helicopter started spiraling into the ocean,” he said. “I jumped up and I said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a helicopter going down into the Hudson right now.’ And so I got off that and called 911, immediately. But I saw it. I saw it break apart, spiral and crash land into the water like, very clearly.”
Bahamonde was in the middle of a work Zoom call when he heard a deafening noise. That bang, it turned out, marked the beginning of the helicopter’s fatal descent.
Eyewitness Charles McSorley, 59, was walking between Jersey City and Hoboken when the helicopter caught his attention. What he saw next left him stunned.
“Looked like the propellers came straight off. And I saw it come straight down,” he recalled. “And I just started walking fast towards Hoboken because it wasn’t far from the Hoboken train station.”
McSorley said there was a sudden shift in the helicopter’s behavior. “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.”
“The rotors just ‘snapped right off,’” he added.
In another chilling account, Bruce Wall described the final moments before impact, saying, “Just walking toward this way from Hoboken and started just hearing something and then you look to the left into the water and you see the plane slowly falling apart.”
“It was falling apart probably 15 feet before it actually fell and then the tail whipped off and the propeller fell while it was falling, crashing, the propeller, as you see in the video, the propeller was in the air still propelling while the plane was falling down.”
Authorities later confirmed that the pilot and five tourists from Spain, including three children, were aboard the ill-fated aircraft. Four of the victims were declared dead at the scene, and the remaining two died after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
An official investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash, though early accounts suggest catastrophic mechanical failure.
The video footage of the crash and the consistency of witness statements all point to the same horrifying sequence: the helicopter began to break apart in midair, leaving those on the ground powerless as the chopper spiraled into the Hudson below.
Startling video footage, captured by a stunned onlooker, showed the moment the New York Helicopter aircraft appeared to break apart in midair before smashing into the frigid waters near Hoboken around 3:20 pm Witnesses were horrified as the chopper’s tail and rotor system seemed to detach just moments before impact.
Nicholas Bahamonde, 34, witnessed the devastating moment unfold from his Jersey City apartment.
“I look up to the left, and I saw the tail rotor break off of the helicopter, so it was already split in the air, and then the front main part of the helicopter started spiraling into the ocean,” he said. “I jumped up and I said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a helicopter going down into the Hudson right now.’ And so I got off that and called 911, immediately. But I saw it. I saw it break apart, spiral and crash land into the water like, very clearly.”
Tourist helicopter crashes in Hudson River in New York City, all 6 on board killed... : Agustín Escobar, head of Siemens’ Spanish division, was killed along with his wife and three children in a helicopter crash in New York City.. unseen footage . Rest in peace 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/xyMGUzXHbj
— john (@magajohn2025) April 11, 2025
Bahamonde was in the middle of a work Zoom call when he heard a deafening noise. That bang, it turned out, marked the beginning of the helicopter’s fatal descent.
Eyewitness Charles McSorley, 59, was walking between Jersey City and Hoboken when the helicopter caught his attention. What he saw next left him stunned.
“Looked like the propellers came straight off. And I saw it come straight down,” he recalled. “And I just started walking fast towards Hoboken because it wasn’t far from the Hoboken train station.”
McSorley said there was a sudden shift in the helicopter’s behavior. “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.”
“The rotors just ‘snapped right off,’” he added.
In another chilling account, Bruce Wall described the final moments before impact, saying, “Just walking toward this way from Hoboken and started just hearing something and then you look to the left into the water and you see the plane slowly falling apart.”
“It was falling apart probably 15 feet before it actually fell and then the tail whipped off and the propeller fell while it was falling, crashing, the propeller, as you see in the video, the propeller was in the air still propelling while the plane was falling down.”
Authorities later confirmed that the pilot and five tourists from Spain, including three children, were aboard the ill-fated aircraft. Four of the victims were declared dead at the scene, and the remaining two died after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
An official investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash, though early accounts suggest catastrophic mechanical failure.
The video footage of the crash and the consistency of witness statements all point to the same horrifying sequence: the helicopter began to break apart in midair, leaving those on the ground powerless as the chopper spiraled into the Hudson below.
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