Birthday girl’s last smile: Final photo shows young child excitedly sitting in helicopter cockpit…

Beaming at the camera and sitting proudly in the cockpit of a helicopter on the eve of her ninth birthday, a little girl excitedly waited to take off and embark on a tour over the iconic New York City skyline with her parents and young siblings on Thursday.

But just 16 minutes later, tragedy struck when the eight-year-old, who had travelled to the Big Apple from Spain with her family, was killed in a horror crash after the chopper plummeted into the Hudson River at 3.15pm yesterday.

Her siblings, aged ten and four, also died in the horror crash, as well as her father Agustin Escobar, a Siemens executive, and mother Merce Camprubi Montal.