A helicopter crashed in the Hudson River in New York on Thursday, killing Agustin Escobar, a well-known Spanish executive at Siemens, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children, ages four, five, and eleven
The identity of the 36 year old pilot, who also perished in the collision, is still unknown. Around 3:15 p.m., the New York City Fire Department was called to report that a Bell 306 helicopter had crashed into the Manhattan River. Mayor Eric Adams verified the deaths of all six passengers a few hours later.
Who is Merce Camprubi Montal, wife of Agustin Escobar Siemens Spain CEO who died in Hudson River helicopter crash, bio, age, family, children and job
The Bell 206 chopper, operated by New York Helicopter Tours, departed at about 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) from a downtown helicopter pad and flew north over the Hudson River.
It turned south when it reached the George Washington Bridge and crashed minutes later, hitting the water upside down and sinking near Lower Manhattan about 3:15 p.m., just off Hoboken, New Jersey. New York Helicopter Tour CEO Michael Roth revealed the pilot of the aircraft had radioed about needing more fuel minutes before the tourist chopper crashed.
Agustin Escobar, 53, was well known in the global engineering and tech industries and had 25 years of experience.
He was married to Merce Camprubi Montal who was the granddaughter of FC Barcelona’s former president.
Montal was the sister of Joan Camprubí, part of an opposition group within the club against the current leadership structured headed by Joan Laporta.
Agustí, a Spanish econommist and businessman who descended from a family of Catalan cotton textile manufacturers, held the presidency of Barcelona from 1969 until 1977 and was behind the world-record fee signing of Johan Cruyff, one of the most impactful and historically significant signings in the club’s history.
She was the granddaughter of former FC Barcelona President Agustí Montal i Costa (1969–1977) and great-granddaughter of former FC Barcelona President Agustí Montal i Galobart (1946–1952) and her brother, Joan Camprubí Montal, leads the ‘Som un clam’ platform.
The Spanish family-of-five which died in yesterday’s crash were in New York to celebrate one of the children’s birthdays.
Mercè Camprubí Monta was a global manager at an energy technology company and shared three children with her husband.
Agustin Escobar, CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, his wife, age 40 Mercè Camprubí Montal, global commercialization manager at Siemens Energy, and their children Agustín, 10, Mercè, 8 and Víctor, 4, were all killed in the crash.
The crash in which Agustin Escobar lost his life, also claimed the life of the helicopter’s pilot. Only a few hours prior to starting a sightseeing tour, the family had travelled from Spain to New York. Media reports that a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV helicopter crashed near Pier 40 in the late afternoon after taking off from lower Manhattan, circling the Statue of Liberty, and heading north down the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge.
Agustin Escobar was born in Spain. He graduated from Universidad Pontificia Comillas with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Later, he went on to seek higher education in business, earning an Executive MBA from IE Business School and an MBA from Universidad de Alcala.
He began working with Siemens in 1998 as the Head of Sales and Project Management for Power Automation Systems in Spain. He advanced through the ranks to become the head of important divisions in Latin America, including Infrastructure & Cities and Energy Management.
With more than 25 years of global expertise in the energy, transportation, and infrastructure industries, Escobar was a very successful leader. He had been the Global CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility and the CEO of Siemens Spain since December 2022.
He has important positions throughout his career in the US, South America, Spain, and Germany, among other places. Siemens’ success in global mobility and transportation projects was greatly aided by his leadership.
Before relocating to Bogota, Colombia, where he oversaw more than 1,300 workers and many plants, Escobar relocated to New York in 2010 to supervise Siemens North America’s international business development. His division was named Siemens’ top-performing business worldwide in 2016 while he was in charge.
In 2018, he returned to Spain and took over as CEO of Siemens Mobility SLU and Siemens Rail Automation SAU, overseeing massive rail projects with more than 1,000 workers. From 2019 until 2024, he managed teams in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Greece, and parts of Africa while overseeing operations for Southwest Europe.