Old video misrepresented after New York helicopter crash

Published on April 14, 2025 at 15:43
5 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

After a helicopter plunged into New York's Hudson River on April 10, 2025, killing a family of five along with the pilot, social media users claimed video footage shows the aircraft flying erratically overhead before the accident. But the clip spreading online is unrelated; it shows a different chopper that crash-landed on a roof in the city in 2019.

"This is the helicopter before crashing, you can see the pilot was doing very dangerous maneuvers that the helicopter could not eventually handle. #HudsonRiver," says an April 10, 2025 post on X.

Screenshot from X taken April 10, 2025

Similar posts spread across the platform after New York police said a helicopter had crashed into the busy shipping channel April 10. The aircraft was carrying a Spanish family on a sightseeing flight when it malfunctioned, falling apart in mid-air before plummeting into the waters below.

All six people on board -- the pilot plus a senior business executive, his wife and three children -- died. Their bodies have been recovered from the river.

The wreckage of a helicopter is removed from the water after crashing into the Hudson River on April 10, 2025 (AFP / Leonardo Munoz)

Various videos of the crash emerged online in the hours after it happened.

But the clip spreading on social media is not one of them; the footage was captured nearly six years earlier and during different weather conditions, a reverse image search revealed.

A social media user named @thingswendysees, identified in news reports as Wendy Slater, posted the footage to Instagram June 10, 2019 (archived here).

"Crazy helicopter on the east river #NYC #nycphotographer #helicopter #weird," the post says, tagging several local news outlets.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @thingswendysees

Reached via Instagram direct message, the user told AFP: "The video is from the 2019 helicopter accident."

According to news reports that also published the footage, that helicopter flying erratically was carrying only the pilot, who died after making a crash-landing atop a high-rise in Midtown Manhattan (archived here and here). The crash sparked a fire and forced workers to evacuate the building.

The clip was cited as a "witness video" in the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the incident, which said difficult weather conditions likely caused the pilot to become disoriented and lose control of the aircraft (archived here).

Investigators from the agency were reportedly on site after the April 10, 2025 crash as well, though no conclusive report is expected for months.

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