The causes of death for the family of five and pilot killed in the tragic Hudson River helicopter crash have yet to be determined — as a relative of one of the dead has arrived in the US to possibly identify the bodies, authorities said Saturday.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said the brother of Mercè Camprubi Montal — who was killed in the accident Thursday alongside her husband and their three young children — had flown in from Spain Friday.
“There is still quite bit of a process to go through now,” Fulop told The Post Saturday while awaiting an afternoon press conference from the National Transportation Safety Board.
“The family member may have to ID the bodies and they still have to arrange transport back to Spain. The Spanish consulate is involved and Siemens has people working on this.”
The bodies are being kept at the Hudson County Medical Examiner’s office in the meantime.
“They still have to figure out the cause of death, was it from drowning or was it from the propeller? Right now we’re all waiting to hear what the NTSB has to say,” said Fulop.
Camprubi Montal, her husband, Agustin Escobar, and their three young kids — Augustin, 10, Mercedes, 8, and Victor, 4 — and their pilot, former Navy veteran Sean Johnson, 36, were about 25 minutes into their sightseeing tour in the Bell 206L chopper when it suddenly broke apart over the Hudson River and crashed into the frigid waters near Jersey City.
An aviation expert said it’s likely Johnson knew something was seriously wrong as the chopper broke apart midair.
“I think the pilot would have been aware something was wrong but the passengers may not have,” aviation lawyer Jim Brauchle told The Post. “Obviously pilots who fly all the time are going to know something is wrong but passengers may not appreciate the danger they are in right away.”
“Once the thing starts spinning, then people know it’s something catastrophic. Passengers eventually figure it out.”
Brauchle said the doomed passengers and pilot might have died either from blunt force trauma or drowning.
“You hope the people inside got knocked out because if they were conscious, that would have been horrible. Once it inverted, they may have hit their heads on the inside of the helicopter,” he said. “For their sakes, you hope that’s what occurred. There’s a good chance they were unconscious.”
Brauchle added that once the helicopter rotor is separated from the aircraft and the tail is sheared off, there is nothing even the most expert pilot can do.
“Once you lose the rotor blades, it’s unrecoverable. The reason it [the chopper] flips upside down is that the roof of the helicopter is the heaviest part. Once you lose the main rotors, it essentially becomes a rock — there’s nothing to create a lift,” he said.
Relatives of the Camprubí Montal and Escobar families say they are taking solace in the fact that their loved ones “passed away together’’ in the “sweetest moment of their lives.’’
“There are no words to describe what we are experiencing, nor to thank you for the warmth received,” said a letter posted on X by Joan Camprubí Montal on Friday.
“These are very difficult times, but optimism and joy have always characterized our family,” said the statement, which was signed by 19 Escobar and Camprubí Montal family members. “We want to preserve the memory of a happy and united family, in the sweetest moment of their lives.
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