The devastated brother of Hudson River helicopter crash sufferer Mercè Camprubí Montal paid a grim go to to the scene of the deadly accident Saturday, as he promised to “always remember” his tragic relations.
“We are going to always remember you,” stated Joan Camprubí Montal in his native Spanish after reciting all 5 of their names. “We are going to preserve your smile alive every single day of our lives, and I consider that’s one of the best legacy we can provide you.”
Camprubí Montal, who flew into the Large Apple from Spain, briefly spoke to the media Saturday after first assembly with Mayor Eric Adams and laying a wreath on the Jersey Metropolis facet of the scene, not removed from the place the sightseeing chopper carrying the household of 5 and their pilot plummeted into the chilly waters.
Adams laid flowers for chopper pilot and Navy veteran Sean Johnson, 36, who was additionally killed.
“This can be a actually troublesome scenario however we’re overwhelmed by the large condolences we’ve obtained,” Camprubí Montal added. “I need to say they left collectively, they left with out struggling, and so they left with a smile on their faces, and that’s essential to us.”
He stated he’d prefer to convey the 5 our bodies again to Spain as quickly as potential, “to relaxation in peace collectively in our place.”
Adams known as Thursday’s deadly helicopter crash an “unspeakable” tragedy.
“Our hearts are damaged,” began Adams, noting the flower-laying on the Hudson “was a symbolic gesture for the lack of life” that occurred Thursday.
It’s also, Adams stated, “our approach of realizing and acknowledging our phrases can’t convey again their relations, however it’s our approach of claiming, as New Yorkers, we stand united with this household throughout this second of grief.
“Their grief is our grief,” Adams insisted. “Their sorrow is our sorrow.”
Killed within the Thursday crash have been Johnson, Camprubí Montal, her husband, Agustin Escobar, and their three kids — Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4.
The household was on the town celebrating each Mercè’s fortieth birthday and Mercedes’ ninth birthday, which might’ve been on Friday. The plane went down 25 minutes after takeoff from Manhattan’s Downtown Skyport.
Camprubí Montal’s household, which made their fortune in textile manufacturing, is finest identified in her hometown by their reign over FC Barcelona — one of many world’s largest and richest soccer golf equipment, La Vanguardia reported.
The chopper crashed close to the shoreline of Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey, moments after the primary and tail rotor indifferent from the physique of the plane.
NYPD personnel recovered one of many helicopter’s doorways throughout a search of the river Saturday. The craft’s rotor blades stay lacking.
The precise reason for the crash has but to be decided and will take weeks, officers stated.
The doomed helicopter, owned by Louisiana’s Meridian Helicopters and operated by New York Helicopter, skilled a mechanical difficulty with its transmission meeting final September, in response to Federal Aviation Administration knowledge.
The corporate stated that it was “not working till additional discover.”
In a press release posted to its website, the agency stated it was “profoundly saddened by the tragic accident and lack of life that occurred on April 10, 2025, involving certainly one of our helicopters within the Hudson River.”
The assertion insisted “the security and well-being of our passengers and crew has all the time been the cornerstone of our operations,” and that firm’s “fast focus is supporting the households and their family members affected by this tragedy, in addition to absolutely cooperating with the FAA and NTSB investigations.”
Information present the plane was in-built 2004 and had already logged 12,728 hours of flight time when it was pressured into restore.
New York Helicopter made headlines in June 2013, when a Bell 206 chopper carrying 4 Swedish vacationers crash landed within the Hudson when the plane misplaced energy. One way or the other, the pilot and 4 relations miraculously survived.
