The tour company behind a horror helicopter crash in the Hudson River which left six dead has shut down immediately as the lead authority reveals it is investigating the operator’s license and safety record.
Spanish tourist Agustin Escobar, 49, along with his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39, and their three children, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10 were all tragically killed on Thursday when the helicopter they were riding in fell from the sky and crashed into the iconic New York river.
Pilot Sean Johnson, a 36-year-old Navy veteran who has been flying commercial since 2023, also died in the tragedy.
The Federal Aviation Administration revealed on Sunday that they would investigate the operator’s license and safety record.
‘New York Helicopter Tours — the company involved in the deadly crash on the Hudson earlier this week — is shutting down their operations immediately,’ the FAA said on Sunday night.
‘Additionally, the FAA will be launching an immediate review of the tour operator’s license and safety record.
‘Safety is the FAA’s number one priority, and we will not hesitate to act to protect the flying public.’
The chopper involved in Thursday’s crash was a N216MH Bell 206L-4 which had been leased from Louisiana-based company Meridian Helicopters.
Spanish tourist Agustin Escobar, 49, along with his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39, and their three children, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10 were all tragically killed on Thursday when the helicopter they were riding in fell from the sky and crashed into the iconic New York river
Horrified onlookers in New York and New Jersey watched as the aircraft, operated by local tour company New York Helicopter Charters, split apart in the sky and spiraled into the river
In 2013, one of the tour company’s helicopters was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River after it lost power in eerily similar circumstances to Thursday’s tragedy.
A family of four tourists from Sweden had been taking a sightseeing tour in a Bell 206 helicopter that had also taken off near Wall Street.
The pilot was forced to land in the water and deploy inflatable pontoons to keep the aircraft upright.
All four passengers were taken to hospital at the time, but there were no serious injuries.
At the time of the crash, company owner Michael Roth told the Wall Street Journal he had ‘no clue why we lost power’, adding that the helicopter underwent daily routine inspections.
Just two years later in 2015, another aircraft crashed after it began spinning out of control while hovering 20 feet off the ground.
The pilot reported putting the helicopter down for a ‘hard landing’ and an investigation into the problem was launched.
It was determined the same helicopter – a Bell 206 model that had been leased from Meridian Helicopters – had been involved in a hard landing in Chile five years prior.
The Federal Aviation Administration revealed on Sunday that they would investigate the operator’s license and safety record
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) deemed the drive shaft of the aircraft ‘unairworthy.’
And in court documents seen by DailyMail.com, New York Helicopter Charter has faced financial difficulties in recent years, filing for bankruptcy in 2019 amid changes to air traffic policies in New York City which impacted the business.
The filing states that companies had been ordered to stick to certain routes and flying schedules, unable to operate on Sundays due to complaints about noise.
The helicopter flew for approximately 16 minutes before going down into the water. It took off from the Wall Street Heliport and did a circle near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge at about 1,000 feet.
Prior to the revelation that the company would immediately cease operations, Senator Chuck Schumer called on the authority to ramp up safety inspections.
He accused helicopter tour companies broadly of ‘cutting corners and putting profits over people.’
‘One of the things we can do to honor those lives and try to save others is to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ Schumer said.
‘We know there is one thing for sure about New York City’s helicopter tour companies: they have a deadly track record.’
In the 2013 incident (pictured), a family of four tourists from Sweden had been taking a sightseeing tour in a Bell 206 helicopter that had also taken off near Wall Street
The chopper involved in Thursday’s crash was a N216MH Bell 206L-4 which had been leased from Louisiana-based company Meridian Helicopters
The doomed helicopter was being flown by 36-year-old Sean Johnson (pictured) – a Navy SEAL veteran – when in suddenly split apart in the sky
Data from the FAA suggested the ill-fated aircraft experienced a mechanical issue, particularly with its transmission assembly, back in September 2024.
Built in 2004, the chopper had flown more than 12,000 hours before needing repairs.
It was also revealed that the helicopter’s pilot radioed base to warn that they were running out of fuel just before the tragedy struck.
Investigators will also explore the maintenance history of the crashed helicopter, focusing on whether two recently issued FAA safety airworthiness orders for Bell 206L models were properly followed.
The first directive, issued in December 2022, required inspections – and, if needed, replacements – of the models’ main rotor blades due to a problem called ‘delamination’.
A second directive was issued in May 2023 after a helicopter experienced the loss of its tail-rotor drive – the smaller rotor mounted at the tail – due to a joint failure.
The agency’s directive mandated testing and possible replacement of tail rotor shafts across eight helicopter models, including the one involved in Thursday’s fatal crash.
