The pilot who died with a family of five in a helicopter crash in New York City’s Hudson River was a NAVY Seal named Sean Johnson.
On March 27, Johnson posted a video to his Facebook page that shows him piloting a helicopter over lower Manhattan. “When it all comes together,” he captioned the Facebook reel, including the captions #tours #charter and #nyc. In the comment thread, he identified the craft as a “Bell 206L4.”
Johnson’s Facebook profile picture shows him piloting a helicopter, and his cover photo is a picture of Manhattan.
Gothamist identified Johnson as the pilot of the Bell 206 tourist helicopter which crashed and ended up submerged in the Hudson River in New York City on April 10, 2025.
The pilot “radioed about needing to refuel minutes before the helicopter crashed into the chilly waters,” Fox News reported, citing the CEO of the company that owned the helicopter, Michael Roth.
Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three kids died in the crash, as did the pilot, The Associated Press reported.
On March 6, Johnson posted another photo with a helicopter and wrote, “Windy City boy, in the Big Apple.”
According to his Facebook page, he was a helicopter pilot, “veteran, outdoors lover, and lifter of heavy metal.”
Johnson’s recent Facebook pages included a post about the death of actor Val Kilmer. “Iceman forever,” he wrote.
Friends filled up the comment thread under his helicopter video with tributes. “I was telling my buddy about how you became a pilot. Just a couple of weeks back. Rest in peace,” one wrote. “Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Fair winds shipmate,” another person wrote.
His page identified him as a “struggling co-pilot at Billings Flying Service,” and a former UH-60 co-pilot at Heli-1 Corporation” who studied as a commercial pilot at Southern Utah University and Central Texas College, as well as at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Johnson’s page says he was from Chicago, Illinois.
According to Gothamist, Johnson, 36, was a Navy SEAL veteran who had recently moved to New York.
“I’m just at loss for words. I don’t even know what happened,” Johnson’s wife Kathryn Johnson told Gothamist.”It’s just hard right now.”
She told the site that Johnson worked in the past as a celebrity bodyguard and for a television show.
Remi Adeleke shared a photo of Johnson in an aircraft to Instagram and wrote,
“This is devastating. I just spoke with Sean’s wife. The news publicized the name of the Siemens Exec and his family, but not the pilot. @its_me_kat3 asked me to share who Sean Johnson was so his name doesn’t get lost or forgotten,” the post says.
“I met Sean when he was a new tech in the SEAL Teams. I was an E-6 at the time, and Sean stood out immediately—vibrant, humble, respectful, and hungry to learn. Every time I stepped into his workspace, we’d chop it up about life, the Teams, and his future. He’d always tell me he wanted to be a pilot someday. I’d remind him, ‘Stay locked in. Do the work—and you’ll get there.’ And he did,” the post continued.
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