An eyewitness to the tragic helicopter crash on the Hudson River has recalled the ‘horrifying’ moment she realized a thunderous sound she heard was an aircraft spiraling out of the sky.
Rashmi Kamkeri, a 30-year-old engineer, was working remotely from her apartment in Newport Park when she heard a deafening crash about 3.19pm on Thursday.
From her window – which overlooks the Hudson River running between New York and New Jersey – she saw the tragedy as it unfolded.
A New York Helicopters aircraft was falling from the sky. Authorities have since recovered six bodies from the wreckage, identified as Spanish tech boss Agustín Escobar, his wife and their three children, along with the pilot.
‘It was horrifying,’ Kamkeri told DailyMail.com.
‘I thought it was thunder and ten seconds later I saw the helicopter 10 feet above the water falling and then it made a big splash and went underneath the water.
‘I panicked… then saw a piece of the helicopter fall into the water. The Waterway boat was moving and then it took a turn.
‘I was almost in tears praying that someone would come and save them. I wished there would be someone survives. I am so sad.’
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Rashmi Kamkeri (pictured), a 30-year-old engineer, was working remotely from her apartment in Newport Park when she heard a deafening crash about 3.19pm on Thursday
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Agustín Escobar, the president of the Spanish branch of the technology company Siemens, and his wife and three children (pictured) were killed in the crash
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The most recent crash happened in 2018 when a chopper hit crashed into the East River, leaving five passengers dead. (Pictured: The chopper from the previous crash being pulled from the water)
At 3.22pm, Kamkeri began taking videos of some of the boats circling the wreckage.
Then at 3.23pm, emergency responders started to arrive on the scene and by 3.30pm more police and helicopters arrived.
The aircraft was operated by New York Helicopter Tours, a local tour company. The chopper appeared to be a N216MH – a Bell 206L-4, according to Flight Radar.
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 1000 feet.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others were taken to the hospital, where they ‘succumbed to their injuries,’ NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The family of five who tragically perished were pictured posing on the helipad and inside the aircraft before the crash.
Law enforcement officials confirmed to The New York Times that the executive and his family were onboard the tour helicopter.
Escobar was appointed to serve as the CEO of Siemens in Spain in 2022 after previously serving as the CEO of Siemens Mobility Spain.
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Pictured: First responders on the pier near where the crash took place
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Heartbreaking photos showed the family posing inside the helicopter and on the helipad before the crash
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Emergency personnel worked in darkness to pull the wreckage from the water
Bystander films helicopter crashing into Hudson River in NYC
He also held various positions in Spain between 1998 and 2010, primarily in the energy sector. Escobar served as the vice president of the German Chamber of Commerce for Spain.
Jacqueline and Aidan White, who also live nearby, were outside with their dog Tuukka when an alert pinged on their phones about the tragedy.
When they learned the victims were visiting New York from Spain had perished, Jacqueline said: ‘I can’t even imagine their families. They are probably asleep and might not even know because of the time difference.
‘Imagine waking up and your entire…’ she said, her voice trailing off.
‘It’s so terrible.’
Jacqueline said she’d ‘always wanted’ to take a helicopter ride, but the recent spike in aircraft tragedies had forced her to reconsider.
‘Now I don’t think… It’s too scary and it’s happened too many times now. There have been a lot of crashes or maybe we are just hearing about it more now.’
Brian Marks, who was also nearby when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger pulled off a ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ and safely landed his passenger plane on the Hudson after a bird strike disabled both engines, said he was at the park with his children on Thursday as the helicopter went down.
Brian Marks (pictured), who was also nearby when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger pulled off a ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ and safely landed his passenger plane on the Hudson after a bird strike disabled both engines, said he was at the park with his children on Thursday as the helicopter went down
Jacqueline and Aidan White, who also live nearby, were outside with their dog Tuukka when an alert pinged on their phones about the tragedy
Witnesses gathered along the edge of the river as emergency crews tried to pull the wreckage from the water
He said one of his children asked ‘what’s that sound’, while the second asked ‘do you think it was an earthquake?’
‘I said, ”no we would feel it”,’ prompting his child to ask again: ‘Do you think a building pancaked?’
Marks described the sound as a ‘loud thump’ and warned ‘in this river in this time of day with this temperature hypothermia will kill you in like five minutes.’
Another eye witness told ABC the crash ‘sounded like a sonic boom,’ and when he looked up he saw the chopper ‘splitting in two.’
‘It was going so fast and it just went straight into the water… I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,’ he added.
Anna was walking her rescue dog Archie along the West Side Highway in the rain when she saw the emergency responders and lights across the river on the New Jersey side.
She appeared shaken as she explained the terrifying scene.
‘I saw the helicopter submerge in the water and then there was a-lot of commotion,’ she said.
A helicopter crashed into New York’s Hudson River with a child inside Thursday afternoon
