THE man who piloted the sightseeing helicopter carrying a family of five that crashed into the Hudson River warned of a terrifying issue before the tragedy.

A radio call captured the pilot’s last-minute request just moments before he went dark and plunged into the icy waters outside New York City.

On Thursday at around 3:17 pm, witnesses watched in horror as the chopper broke apart mid-air and fell upside down.

Inside the helicopter was a family of Spanish tourists, including Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company, and three children.

The family was taking a well-traveled route up and down the western side of Manhattan to take a look at the Statue of Liberty and the iconic New York skyline when the tragedy unfolded.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but Michael Roth, the 71-year-old owner of New York Helicopter, which provided the tour, has given another clue about what happened before the wreck.

“He [the pilot] 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 Telegraph.