Pilot in helicopter crash was Navy vet who recently moved to NYC, wife says

The pilot of the helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday with a family of five aboard was a 36-year-old Navy veteran who had recently moved to New York City to continue his aviation career, according to family members and his Facebook profile.

Sean Johnson proudly posted a video on his Facebook page on March 27, showing himself soaring over Lower Manhattan in a Bell 206 helicopter. Colleagues and friends congratulated him in the comments. He had previously flown in Chicago, according to his profile.

Barely two weeks later, Johnson was operating that same model of chopper when it suddenly lost control and plunged into the river near Jersey City, killing him along with a Siemens executive visiting from Spain with his wife and their three young children. Video showed the rotors separated from the helicopter while it was in the air, sending the fuselage plummeting into the Hudson.

“ I’m just at loss for words. I don’t even know what happened,” Johnson’s wife Kathryn Johnson told Gothamist by phone Friday morning.

She said she was still struggling to process news of his death after finding out about it through one of his former colleagues. “ It’s just hard right now.”

After his time in the U.S. Navy, Johnson took on a variety of jobs, including on a TV show and as a bodyguard for celebrities, his wife said. But through it all, Kathryn added, he “always wanted to fly.”

Kathryn said she and her husband had been separated for the last few months, but were still close. She said they last spoke on Wednesday, though he did not mention any plans for a flight the next day.

Johnson’s friends, former colleagues and shipmates took to social media Friday to express condolences.

“I saw your posts all the time about how much you wanted to be a pilot and how hard you worked to get there,” wrote Erika Gracious. “RIP Sean Johnson, another Shipmate gone too soon.”

Remi Adeleke wrote on Instagram that he met Johnson in the Navy. Johnson, he said, had realized his dream of becoming a pilot.

“Sean came from very humble beginnings — but he never let that define or limit him. If anything, it fueled him,” posted Adeleke, a writer and actor. “He had a quiet determination, a spirit of resilience and a heart that always looked out for others.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration continued to investigate the cause of the crash Friday. Peter Goelz, a former managing director at the NTSB, said in an interview on CNN that the incident was “a catastrophic failure and very unusual,” and noted investigators would examine the wreckage, video footage and aircraft company records.

The agency said it would hold a press briefing later in the day and asked witnesses to submit any relevant information.

New York City officials said the helicopter, operated by New York Helicopter, crashed less than 20 minutes after taking off from the Downtown Skyport on the East River near the Financial District on Thursday afternoon. The company’s CEO Michael Roth declined to comment when reached by phone Friday.

Michael Campbell, a former training captain for New York Helicopter, told Gothamist by phone that safety was a top priority when he worked at the company. He said he left several years ago to start his own business upstate.

“ Our maintenance was always on point,” Campbell said. “Any issues we had were addressed … and I had a great working relationship with the FAA in Farmingdale [Long Island]. We did our conformity checks, you know, we did our periodic inspections.”

Campbell said he had flown the Bell 206 aircraft involved in Thursday’s crash, which he said was on lease from Meridian Helicopter, a company based in Louisiana.

“There’s just so many variables at play” when it comes to a helicopter emergency, he said. “ You do everything in your power to prevent something like this from happening.”

The New York Times reported that choppers in New York Helicopter’s fleet had experienced mechanical failures at least twice in the last 12 years.

Meridian Helicopter did not respond to multiple phone calls Friday.

Some local lawmakers and activists called for a ban or more stringent regulations on sightseeing and other helicopter flights deemed “nonessential.” Mayor Eric Adams defended the flights as part of the city’s economy and tourism, and also as a mode of transportation for business leaders to get around. “We should let the investigation go its course,” he said Friday.

The family killed in the crash included Agustin Escobar, a Spanish CEO at global technology conglomerate Siemens, a spokesperson for the company said. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop tweeted that Escobar had been in the area on business and was eventually joined by his wife and their three children.

The family was celebrating the wife’s 40th birthday, according to Fulop. Adams said in an interview on FOX5 that their middle child’s birthday was on Friday.

Witnesses told Gothamist they heard a loud boom before the helicopter fell into the Hudson River. Officials said the bulk of the helicopter was removed from the river Thursday, but more had to be retrieved Friday.

Stephen Nessen contributed reporting.

Clarification: The headline and body of this story have been updated to more accurately reflect Johnson’s military record. Friends said he was a Navy SEAL, but Gothamist has not been able to corroborate that independently.