Heartbreaking reason why family were traveling to New York when helicopter crashed into Hudson River

Earlier this week, a helicopter carrying a family-of-five crashed into the Hudson River in New York.

Tragically, all five passengers - and the pilot - died in the crash.

Now, the reason why the family - who have been identified as Siemens executive Agustín Escobar, of Barcelona, Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children - were traveling to New York has been revealed.

The incident occurred 3.17pm Eastern Time on April 10, when the aircraft, which New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed was operated by New York Helicopters, crashed into the Hudson River.

In a statement, New York Helicopters said: “The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew has always been the cornerstone of our operations."

Meanwhile, the owner of the chopper, Michael Roth, 71, has since told The Telegraph: "He [the pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive."

While an investigation is underway into what went wrong, it is known that the flight lasted around 18 minutes. Data shows that the aircraft flew north along the Manhattan skyline and then south towards the Statue of Liberty.

But moments later and the helicopter tumbled through the air and into the river near the shoreline of Jersey City.

Agustín Escobar and his family died in the crash (New York Helicopter Tours LLC)

According to PA News, the family were in New York to celebrate the ninth birthday of one of their children, officials said.

Mr Escobar was reportedly in the city on business, meanwhile his family flew over to extend the trip.

Mayor Eric Adams said that the child's birthday was on Friday (April 11), telling Fox 5: “So this is probably part of the normal tourist attraction of seeing the city from the skyline.

“But it’s just a real unfortunate situation. And our heart goes out to the family members.”

An eye witness named Max spoke to ABC News about the crash, explaining that he heard the tragedy unfold before seeing the aftermath.

The devastating incident took place on Thursday (April 10) (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said: "It sounded like a sonic boom so I look up and literally I saw helicopter splitting in 2, with the rotor flying off in the sky it was going so fast and it just went straight into the water.

"Nothing came up afterwards it must have just sunk and that was it, and then I just waited here and like five minutes later we started seeing the police and stuff come.

"I've never seen anything like that in my life."

• Everything we know about helicopter that crashed mid-flight into Hudson River killing family-of-five and pilot
• Pilot warned he ‘needed fuel’ in radio call before helicopter crashed into Hudson River killing six people
• New York fire crews rush to Bronx as gas explosion causes apartment building collapse
• Thousands of flights canceled and state of emergency declared as massive snowstorm hits New York