On April 10, Thursday late afternoon, a Bell 206 LongRanger IV New York helicopter was on a sightseeing tour. However, at around 3:17 PM, the helicopter with its pilot and passengers plunged into the Hudson River, ensuring that there were no survivors.
The pilot, who was a former Navy SEAL, was identified as thirty six year old Seankese Johnson. Johnson had had his certification license to pilot helicopters since August 2023 and had completed 788 hours in the air.
According to CNN and The Associated Press, “Between 1977 and 2019, there had been a total of 32 people killed in New York in helicopter incidents. Many people pushed for ‘ramp inspections’ and ‘surprise inspections’ due to the staggering number of casualties due to pilot and helicopter malfunctions.”
Unfortunately, in this incident, the helicopter involved in the incident had not been equipped with any “flight data recorders” or video and camera recorders or any avionics onboard that may have helped towards the investigation.
However, what is known is that the “helicopter’s last safety inspection” was March 1st, 2025, and it had completed a total of seven tour flights since the devastating incident.
What is also known about the situation is how the helicopter was positioned before making a tragic fall into the water.
According to CNN, “The helicopter had stopped midair, with massive parts falling off, before it ultimately declined into the Hudson River.”
The victims of the crash included the pilot and a family that had been travelling from Spain. Augustin, Merce, and their three children, Victor, Mercedes, and Augustine. It was Merce’s 40th birthday celebration. Joan Camprubi and Mayor Eric Adams were able to speak to the press about the victims.
“They left together. They left without suffering,” Camprubi had said that the fall was too fast for there to be any long suffering to the family.
According to NBC News, Mayor Eric Adams responded to the incident with, “You have 8.5 million New Yorkers who want to say to the family members and to the wider Spanish community that we are here with you, and this symbolic gesture is our way of knowing and acknowledging that our words cannot bring back their family members, but it is our way of saying as New Yorkers, we stand united with this family during this moment of grief, and their grief is our grief.”
There is still no confirmation on how exactly this incident happened, as the investigation is currently still going on. Regardless, hearts and sympathy go out to the family and pilot who unfortunately did not make it out of this tragic event.
