A helicopter crash left a Siemens executive, his family and their pilot dead. Here’s what we know

A sightseeing helicopter plunged from the sky into the Hudson River on Thursday, turning a family outing above Manhattan’s misty skyline into a tragedy.

A sightseeing helicopter plunged from the sky into the Hudson River on Thursday, turning a family outing above Manhattan’s misty skyline into a tragedy. The helicopter carried six people, including three children and an executive from Siemens — a German multinational technology conglomerate. It lifted off from a Manhattan heliport and followed a familiar route: circling the Statue of Liberty, gliding north along the Hudson toward the George Washington Bridge and then turning south. About 16 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into the water, according to analysis by CNN and FlightRadar24. Witnesses described the helicopter flipping and spiraling before crashing near the New Jersey shoreline upside down, scattering debris across the river. “The helicopter was a little bit like nose down, slightly, and I saw the propeller separating from the helicopter. It kept spinning in the air alone. Nothing was attached to it,” Sarah Jane Raymond Ryer, who saw the crash unfold, told CNN affiliate WCBS. A video obtained by CNN shows the rotor blades detached from the helicopter and flying through the air. Jersey City resident Jenn Lynk recalled hearing a startling noise. “It sounded honestly like an engine came out. I looked outside my window. I saw a few people running towards the water, and some people were acting pretty normal. So I was like, ‘It might not be anything.’ Then I started to hear all the sirens come outside,” she told WCBS. Here’s what we know about the crash that killed everyone on board: