It was discovered that just before the disaster occurred, the 36-year-old pilot of the chopper radioed base to alert them that their fuel was running low. The collision also claimed his life.
The Escobar parents and their children, ages four, eight, and ten, were captured in heartbreaking pictures posing inside the plane and on the helipad before to the disaster.
A local tour operator, New York Helicopter, flew the aircraft. Based on Flight Radar, the helicopter seemed to be a Bell 206L-4, or N216MH.
Before plunging into the ocean, the aircraft hovered for around sixteen minutes. It departed from the Wall Street Heliport, circled the Statue of Liberty, and then flew.
At a height of around 1000 feet along the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge. As rescue personnel raced to the site, dramatic footage showed the chopper plummeting into the ocean.
