NEW YORK (TNND) — Federal investigators released a preliminary report on Wednesday, revealing more details about the New York City sightseeing helicopter crash that broke apart midair, killing six people.

Images in the National Transportation Safety Board's report show the fuselage, containing the engine and rotors, separating from the helicopter's tail. The rotor blades and the transmission then detach from the cabin, where the passengers and the pilot sat.

NTSB said the fuselage was found "north of the Holland Tunnel ventilation towers where the water depth was about 6 ft" and the main rotor and tail boom sections were found "north of the fuselage and were submerged to a depth of about 30 ft."

"Debris was also recovered from the surface of the river and the rooftop near the Hoboken, New Jersey, transit building," officials added.

The report stated several witnesses described hearing several loud "bangs" from the helicopter before it broke apart and fell into the river.

The report does not address the initial cause of the crash or why the helicopter broke apart.

At the time of the crash, the report revealed the helicopter had been operated about 50 hours since its last inspection on Feb. 27, 2025. The helicopter’s airframe accrued nearly 13,000 total hours of operation, and the engine accrued more than 23,000 hours.

Records from the Federal Aviation Administration also show the aircraft had a maintenance issue last September involving its transmission assembly.

NTSB noted the helicopter was not equipped with any video or data recording devices, but photos of the pilot, 36-year-old Seankese Johnson, before the helicopter departed show he was wearing computer-augmented sunglasses, which had video and audio capability. However, the sunglasses have not been recovered.

Johnson received his pilot's license in 2023 and had logged 790 hours of flight time, according to NTSB. The report revealed he had fewer than 50 hours of flight time in a Bell 206L-4.

On the day of the crash, April 10, the report said Johnson had just returned after working his "10 days on/10 days off schedule," and it was his eighth flight of the day.

The following is a timeline of the crash:

• The helicopter took off from a downtown heliport at 2:59 p.m.
• The helicopter flew south before turning north to fly along the Manhattan shoreline up the Hudson River.
• At 3:08 p.m., the helicopter reached George Washington Bridge and then turned again to fly south along the New Jersey shoreline.
• Shortly thereafter, the helicopter lost control and crashed off the shoreline near a park in Hoboken.

FDNY said they received notice of the crash at 3:17 p.m. near Pier 40 on the New Jersey side of the river.

The victims included passengers Agustin Escobar, 49, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39, and their three children, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10.

Escobar, global CEO of rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, was visiting from Barcelona, Spain.

Montal, who worked for Siemens Energy and was the granddaughter of a former president of the famous Barcelona FC soccer club, flew in with their children to meet him.

The helicopter tour company said they were shutting down operations immediately after the crash and that it was cooperating with authorities in the investigation.