Kathryn spoke to Gothamist in the wake of the devastating incident, which also claimed the lives of five members of a visiting Spanish family. The victims included Agustín Escobar, an executive with Siemens in Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three young children. The family had been in New York celebrating Merce’s birthday when tragedy struck on Thursday, April 10, near the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
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 occurred around 3:15 p.m., witnessed by stunned bystanders along the waterfront. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later confirmed that the cause remains under investigation. His wife Kathryn expressed her heartbreak and disbelief, recalling that she had spoken to Sean just the day before. Though separated in recent months, they had stayed in touch, and she learned of his death through one of his colleagues. Grieving the loss, she admitted that processing the tragedy had been incredibly difficult.
Sean had recently moved to New York City to further his aviation career. According to the NTSB, he held a commercial pilot certificate and had recorded 780 hours of total flight time as of late March 2025. His most recent medical report from 2024 documented 450 hours of experience at that point.
Before becoming a pilot, Sean worked as a celebrity bodyguard and even contributed to a television show after his time as a Navy SEAL. His aviation journey began at Southern Utah University, where he trained from 2021 to 2023. Originally from Chicago, he frequently shared his flying experiences on social media. At the time of the crash, Sean had been flying a Bell 206 helicopter for New York Helicopters.
Age 36 Sean, who was originally from Chicago, attended Southern Utah University as he studied to become a commercial pilot from 2021 to 2023 and was flying a Bell 206 helicopter for the tour company New York Helicopters when the crash occurred.
According to CEO Michael Roth, Sean had radioed in to report a return to the helipad for refueling. The flight was expected to conclude within minutes, but when the aircraft failed to return after 20 minutes, concern turned to alarm. Roth stated that the entire company was shaken, adding that his wife had been inconsolable since the tragedy. Among those who paid tribute to Sean was fellow Navy SEAL veteran Remi Adeleke.
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.