The pilot of the doomed helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River was a Navy SEAL veteran — and posted chilling video of himself final month proudly flying in the identical kind of chopper over Decrease Manhattan.
“When all of it comes collectively…,” Sean Johnson, 36, wrote subsequent to the now-eerie Fb footage, which confirmed him in a Bell 206 helicopter March 27.
Pals congratulated him of their feedback, with one telling him he was “residing the dream” and one other praising his accomplishments over the previous yr.
Johnson had labored in tv and as a bodyguard to celebrities earlier than not too long ago moved to New York Metropolis to proceed his aviation profession, Gothamist reported, citing his spouse.
He was working a doomed Bell 206 on Thursday as a part of a sightseeing tour for a household of 5 from Barcelona.
It’s unclear if the chopper he was flying within the Fb footage was the identical helicopter he was working this week when it crashed, killing him and the 5 vacationers. .
It took authorities an hour to get well his physique as a result of the wreckage was so mangled, law-enforcement sources stated.
A Chicago native, Johnson most not too long ago lived in Salem and Virginia and frolicked in Montana, the place he labored for 2 completely different helicopter corporations, in response to his Fb web page.
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Final yr, he labored by means of Montana’s fireplace season as a co-pilot for Billings Flying Service, which focuses on aerial firefighting and heavy tools transportation.
Whereas within the Navy, he served as a SEAL and a gunner’s mate answerable for working, sustaining and repairing weapons techniques.
However he “at all times needed to fly,” his spouse Kathryn Johnson informed Gothamist.
“ I’m simply at loss for phrases,” she stated. “I don’t even know what occurred.”
Johnson stated she and her husband had been separated for the previous couple of months however have been nonetheless shut and even spoke the day earlier than the tragic accident.
Her husband didn’t point out Thursday’s flight plans to his spouse within the name, and he or she heard the heartbreaking information from a former colleague of his, she stated.
Johnson and the household of vacationers — Agustin Escobar, his spouse, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their 4- 8- and 10-year-old children — have been all killed when the helicopter they have been in broke aside midair and plunged into the murky waters.
Individuals who knew Johnson flooded social media with condolences.
“RIP Sean, I’m proud to have identified you,” one particular person stated in a Fb remark. “Truthful winds and following seas,” stated others, referencing a typical Navy phrase.
Remi Adeleke, a former Navy SEAL from the Bronx, met Johnson when he was only a technician with desires of being a pilot.
“Sean stood out instantly – vibrant, humble, respectful, and hungry to study,” Adeleke wrote in an Instagram publish Friday.
“He died doing what he cherished,” he added. “And he died having achieved the dream he spoke about all these years in the past in that SEAL Workforce workspace.”
–Further reporting by Joe Marino
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