BREAKING: Haunting final images of Agustín Escobar and his family before helicopter crash

These chilling images capture a tech boss, his wife and their three children moments before their deaths in a terrifying .

Agustín Escobar and his family grin warmly as they stand on the helipad before their New York Helicopter sightseeing trip. They are later seen smiling at the camera inside the Bell 206 aircraft, which would minutes later .

following the impact on Thursday, a disaster which is one of the deadliest helicopter crashes in in nearly 20 years. The heartbreaking pictures, now widely shared online, are thought to be the last photographs the family took together.

Following the tragedy, CEO of New York Helicopters, Michael Roth, said: "I’m absolutely devastated. The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter. And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business."

READ MORE:

It is understood the Escobar family had only arrived in New York City earlier on Thursday and made the sightseeing trip one of their first priorities.

But witnesses said they saw the chopper "split in half" before it went down near Pier 40, with one man reporting the stricken aircraft making what sounded like a "sonic boom." It has not yet been established what caused the Bell 206 aircraft to plummet from the skies during the Escobars' doomed tour.

READ MORE:

Mr Escobar was the , as well as the CEO of Siemens Mobility Southwest Europe — a position he had held since December 2022. The professional earned his degree in industrial engineering from Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid and had more than 25 years of international experience in the energy and transportation sectors, leading teams across the United States, Latin America, and Spain.

The names of Escobar's wife and children have not been publicly released. The other person killed as a result of the crash was the pilor, whose name has also not yet been disclosed by authorities.

Following the disaster, President offered condolences to the victims' families and friends. In his message on Truth Social, Mr Trump described the horror as a "terrible helicopter crash" and he said that the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and his staff were investigating it. The leader, 78, also stressed "announcements as to exactly what took place, and how, will be made shortly."