The causes of dying for the household of 5 and pilot killed in the tragic Hudson River helicopter crash have but to be decided — as a relative of one of many lifeless has arrived within the US to presumably establish the our bodies, authorities mentioned Saturday.
Jersey Metropolis Mayor Steven Fulop mentioned the brother of Mercè Camprubi Montal — who was killed within the accident Thursday alongside her husband and their three younger kids — had flown in from Spain Friday.
“There’s nonetheless fairly little bit of a course of to undergo now,” Fulop instructed The Submit Saturday whereas awaiting a day press convention from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board.
“The member of the family could need to ID the our bodies and so they nonetheless have to rearrange transport again to Spain. The Spanish consulate is concerned and Siemens has individuals engaged on this.”
The our bodies are being saved on the Hudson County Medical Examiner’s workplace within the meantime.
“They nonetheless have to determine the trigger of dying, was it from drowning or was it from the propeller? Proper now we’re all ready to listen to what the NTSB has to say,” mentioned Fulop.
Camprubi Montal, her husband, Agustin Escobar, and their three younger children — Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4 — and their pilot, former Navy veteran Sean Johnson, 36, had been about 25 minutes into their sightseeing tour within the Bell 206L chopper when it abruptly broke aside over the Hudson River and crashed into the frigid waters close to Jersey Metropolis.
An aviation professional mentioned it’s probably Johnson knew one thing was critically fallacious because the chopper broke aside midair.
“I feel the pilot would have been conscious one thing was fallacious however the passengers could not have,” aviation lawyer Jim Brauchle instructed The Submit. “Clearly pilots who fly on a regular basis are going to know one thing is fallacious however passengers could not respect the hazard they’re in straight away.”
“As soon as the factor begins spinning, then individuals realize it’s one thing catastrophic. Passengers finally determine it out.”
Brauchle mentioned the doomed passengers and pilot might need died both from blunt power trauma or drowning.
“You hope the individuals inside acquired knocked out as a result of in the event that they had been aware, that might have been horrible. As soon as it inverted, they could have hit their heads on the within of the helicopter,” he mentioned. “For his or her sakes, you hope that’s what occurred. There’s a very good probability they had been unconscious.”
Brauchle added that when the helicopter rotor is separated from the plane and the tail is sheared off, there may be nothing even essentially the most professional pilot can do.
“When you lose the rotor blades, it’s unrecoverable. The rationale it [the chopper] flips the wrong way up is that the roof of the helicopter is the heaviest half. When you lose the primary rotors, it basically turns into a rock — there’s nothing to create a raise,” he mentioned.
Kin of the Camprubí Montal and Escobar households say they’re taking solace in the truth that their family members “handed away collectively’’ within the “sweetest second of their lives.’’
“There are not any phrases to explain what we’re experiencing, nor to thanks for the heat obtained,” mentioned a letter posted on X by Joan Camprubí Montal on Friday.
“These are very tough occasions, however optimism and pleasure have at all times characterised our household,” mentioned the assertion, which was signed by 19 Escobar and Camprubí Montal relations. “We need to protect the reminiscence of a cheerful and united household, within the sweetest second of their lives.
