The President and CEO of Siemens Spain was Agustin Escobar, who tragically died along with his family when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed into the Hudson River in New York on Thursday evening (Greece time).
Shortly before the helicopter took off, Escobar was photographed with his wife Merce Camrubi Modal and their three children, ages 4, 5, and 11, unaware that these were the last frames of their lives.
In a second photo, the whole family poses smiling inside the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV, which was the type of helicopter.
The helicopter crashed into the Hudson River just 17 minutes after takeoff, and it is not yet known why this happened.
Videos of the moment of the crash show the helicopter falling uncontrollably, apparently having lost its tail propeller.
The 71-year-old owner of the New York Helicopter company that chartered the helicopter to the Escobar family, in his statements, said that "the pilot notified that he wanted to land and that he needed fuel. This should have taken him three minutes but 20 minutes later this never happened," Michael Roth told the Telegraph.
The family of the president of Siemens Spain had arrived in New York earlier on Thursday.
Along with the Escobar family, the helicopter pilot also lost his life, with authorities announcing that four of the passengers died instantly and two were taken to a hospital where they breathed their last.
Escobar had 25 years of professional experience in businesses in the US, Latin America, Spain and Germany and had taken over the position of CEO of Siemens Spain at the end of 2022.
Describing him, a friend told the New York Post that "no matter how difficult things were, he always remained calm. And he never forgot the most important thing, his family."
