FAA Grounds Helicopter Company at Center of Hudson River Crash That Killed 6 People

The Federal Aviation Authority has issued an emergency order grounding New York Helicopter Charter Inc., the sightseeing company that owned the chopper that crashed into the Hudson River on April 10, killing a family of five and the pilot.

The company’s director of operations, Jason Costello, had voluntarily grounded flights after the April 10 excursion killed Agustín Escobar, CEO of a division of Siemens in Spain; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three children, Victor, Mercedes, and Agustín. The sixth victim was the 36-year-old helicopter pilot, Sean Johnson, a Navy SEAL veteran.

But 16 minutes after Costello confirmed the voluntary shutdown on April 13, he was fired by company CEO Michael Roth. Roth told the FAA via email that he did not authorize the grounding and that Costello was no longer an employee of the company, which operates out of the Skyport, a heliport in downtown Manhattan.

“The FAA is taking this action in part because after the company’s director of operations voluntarily shut down flights, he was fired,” the FAA said in a statement.

“The immediate firing of the Director of Operations raises serious safety concerns because it appears Mr. Roth retaliated against Mr. Costello for making the safety decision to cease operations during the investigation,” the FAA said in its emergency order.

The family was on a sightseeing tour to celebrate Mercè’s 40th birthday.

The pilot Seanese “Sean” Johnson, who grew up poor in Chicago, had earned his helicopter pilot license after leaving the Navy and made his first flight in 2023. The Bell 206 L-4 helicopter that crashed was on its eighth flight of the day.

Johnson was laid to rest following a funeral in Newark, NJ, on April 16. Friends told news outlets that the married Navy veteran had had a lifelong ambition to learn to fly.

Joan Camprubí Montal, brother of the mom who died with her husband and three children, said he was “overwhelmed” with the support he’s received since arriving from Spain. He dropped flowers into the Hudson on April 12 after he was escorted by Mayor Eric Adams aboard an NYPD boat to a spot just off the shore of Hoboken, NJ, where his sister, her husband, and their three children perished.

Speaking in Spanish, he said of his sister, “We will never forget, and we will keep your smile alive every day in our lives, and I think that is the best legacy we can give you.”

“What should have been a joyful vacation turned into unimaginable tragedy,” said Adams. He was joined on the excursion by the Spanish Consul General, Marta de Blas Mayordomo.

“Our hearts are broken,” said Adams.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that the flight left the downtown heliport at 2:59 p.m. on April 10, flew up along the Manhattan shoreline and reached the George Washington Bridge around 3:08 p.m. before heading south along the Jersey shore. Calls from 911 began pouring in to first responders on both sides of the Hudson around 3:17 p.m. Witnesses said that the main rotor and the tail rotor seemed to suffer a catastrophic failure and split off from the fuselage, causing the helicopter to plunge upside down into the frigid Hudson just off the city of Hoboken.

NYPD and FDNY divers reached the crash scene within 10 minutes. Tisch said that two of the victims were still alive when pulled from the submerged helicopter but later died in the hospital. She did not specify which of the victims initially survived.

The crash has renewed calls from some officials to ban non-emergency helicopter flights from operating in densely populated Manhattan. “There’s no reason to allow tourists and tour flight operators to use our valuable, precious airspace,” NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal told ABC 7 New York. Adams stopped short of advocating a ban, saying instead that measures should be taken to assure all helicopter tour operators are operating safely.

The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the investigation along with the FAA, but the cause of the crash has yet to be determined. The NTSB said there was no black box or recording device on board the helicopter.

Over a four-day period, NYPD scuba divers recovered the main fuselage and the main rotor and tail rotor in 40 to 50 feet of water. Visibility at the bottom of the Hudson was zero, making the salvage operation particularly perilous. The material will eventually be shipped to an NTSB site in Washington, DC, as investigators try to determine the cause of the deadly crash.