Search resumes for six killed aboard plane, the unnamed pilot and a Spanish family with children age 11, five and four

The pilot of a sightseeing helicopter that crashed into New York’s Hudson River on Thursday killing all six people aboard reportedly sent a radio message moments earlier saying he was low on fuel and was heading back to the helipad, its operators said on Friday.

Michael Roth, the chief executive of New York Helicopter Tours, described how the pilot never made it back to the downtown Manhattan heliport it took off from about 16 minutes previously on its sixth flight of the day, the Telegraph reported.

“He called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,” Roth told the UK outlet.