New York, Apr 11 (AP) A family from Spain was about to celebrate the ninth birthday of one of their children when their sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, killing all six people aboard in the latest US aviation disaster, officials said Friday.

Authorities including the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating Thursday's mid-afternoon crash. There has been no word of a cause. The NTSB plans to brief reporters Friday.

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The victims included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company, and three children, in addition to the pilot, a person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The person could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The pilot also died.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the children were 4, 8 and 10 years old, and the 8-year-old's birthday was Friday.

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“So this is probably part of the normal tourist attraction of seeing the city from the skyline," Adams told Fox 5 New York. “But it's just a real unfortunate situation. And our heart goes out to the family members.”

Escobar was in the New York area on business and his family flew over to meet him for a few days, said Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, in a post on X. He said a relative was expected to arrive Friday and officials were working with the medical examiner to release the bodies to be taken back to Spain.

Pieces of the aircraft could be seen floating in the river Friday morning as divers resumed the search for evidence of the cause.

Photos on the helicopter company's website show the couple and their children smiling as they boarded just before taking off.

The flight departed a downtown heliport around 3 pm and lasted less than 18 minutes. Radar data shows it flew north along the Manhattan skyline then south toward the Statue of Liberty.

Video of the crash showed parts of the aircraft tumbling through the air into the water near the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)