Rhianna Benson
Heartbreaking new information has emerged in the case of a fatal helicopter crash that occurred in New York yesterday, revealing that five of the six victims were a family celebrating a child's birthday.
On Thursday, witnesses to the collision claimed to have seen the tourist aircraft 'falling apart' in 'mid-air' and spinning out of control.
The chopper subsequently plummeted into the Hudson River below, killing all six people on board.
Among the victims identified this morning are Agustín Escobar, the chief executive for rail infrastructure for the technology company Siemens, and his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company.
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The Barcelona couple were were visiting the East Coast city with their three children, aged four, five and 11.
All five family members died in the crash, alongside the male pilot, who remains unnamed.
Several photos of the victims inside of the chopper were captured moments before it took off into the skies.
In one of the photos, one of the couple's three children could be sitting beside the unnamed pilot in the front seat.
According to the Telegraph, it was one of the youngsters' birthdays, with the transatlantic trip in general marking the special occasion.
Four of the six victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
Two others were immediately rushed to hospital, but later died of their injuries.
Offering further details of the incident, the CEO of the air touring firm - New York Helicopter Tours - the pilot had radioed to say they were returning to the helipad. Michael Roth adds, however, that the group never arrived.
"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," the 71-year-old told the Telegraph.
In conversation with the New York Post, Roth also admitted: "The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter.
"And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business.
"The only thing I could guess – I got no clue – is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know."
He continued: "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."
Speaking of what he observed before the crash, 28-year-old witness Bruce Wall described the aircraft 'falling apart probably 15 feet before it actually fell'.
He told the New York Post, 'the tail whipped off', before he heard a 'loud crash'.
"The helicopter was still pretty loud," Wall continued. "And then just a loud, loud crash into water."
Another anonymous female witness told BBC Radio 4 she noticed that the chopper was 'a little bit nose down slightly', claiming that it 'kept spinning in the air'.
A third witness recalled the helicopter splitting in half in mid-air - just 15 minutes after it took off - before falling into the water.