New York helicopter crash pilot was former Navy Seal

Telegraph

12-04-2025

Sean Johnson, who piloted the helicopter which plunged into the Hudson River in New York, was a 36-year-old former Navy Seal.
According to a picture on his Facebook page, posted only weeks ago, he had moved to the city to advance his aviation career.
Mr Johnson was one of six people to die in the accident. The other five, including three children, were a Spanish family on the sightseeing tour.
His Facebook page showed footage of him at the controls of a Bell 206 helicopter - the same model which plummeted into the river.
'When it all comes together,' he wrote on the page.
Friends added on the page that he was 'living the dream'.
Originally from Chicago, Mr Johnson had also lived in Salem, Massachusetts, and Virginia and Montana where he had worked on two different helicopters.
Prior to that he had a varied career, including working as a bodyguard as well as a spell in the TV industry.
He had studied commercial piloting at Southern Utah University and according to his Facebook profile, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a Daytona Beach, Florida institution specialising in aerospace.
Mr Johnson began flying helicopter tours after obtaining his commercial licence in 2023. His first employer was in Chicago.
Before that, he operated larger helicopters, flying rescue missions in California and also working on agricultural projects.
Friends paid tribute to his cheerful personality with a penchant for cracking jokes.
But when it came to flying helicopters, Mr Johnson's colleagues said he was meticulous.
'He was the type to cross his T's and dot his I's,' a friend, Bobbie Rose-Smith, told the New York Times.
She added that he used his qualifications as a helicopter pilot to travel around the US, joining New York Helicopters ferrying tourists above the city's world-famous breathtaking skyline.
'He never took his job lightly,' she said. 'No matter where he was or what he was flying, he was going to know that helicopter inside and out.'
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but family and friends dismissed any suggestions that pilot error could have been involved.
'He's the person you want in that pilot seat,' Louis Johnson, the pilot's father said.
'He was committed, and he knew what he was doing. He was not new to this at all.'
The sentiment was echoed by Laith Mugrabi, one of Sean Johnson's brothers-in-law in the New York Times.
'He knew what he was doing,' Mr Mugrabi added. 'I went up flying with him in a heartbeat because I trusted him.'