New air traffic rules take effect over Hudson River
A year ago tomorrow, a small plane and a tourist helicopter collided over the Hudson River, raining debris down as New Yorkers watched.
Today, the rules governing the sky over the busy Hudson corridor, which draws 200 flights a day, are very different from last year, when five Italian tourists on the helicopter, its pilot, and three family members on the small plane died.
In an effort to prevent such midair collisions, the Federal Aviation Administration changed the rules of the sky over the corridor - from the Statue of Liberty to the George Washington Bridge - including separating planes and helicopters by altitude.
In addition, new safety rules worked out with five helicopter tour operators go into effect this week, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA. The rules detail where helicopters can conduct tours in airspace controlled by air traffic controllers at LaGuardia and Newark International Airports, with specific entry and exit points over the river.
All the changes represent "improved safety," Peters said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation of the crash. A preliminary report stated that an air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport tower was distracted by a nonbusiness phone call and, had he not been distracted, he might have been able to warn the small plane pilot of the impending collision. His supervisor had left the tower to run a personal errand.
The controller, Carl D. Turner, 39, who lived in Lake Grove, and his supervisor, Dennis Moore, 56, of New Brunswick, N.J., were placed on administrative paid leave. The FAA wouldn't comment on their work status last week.
Even with the changes, the new flight rules remain problematic, at least on one pilot's flight that was classified as a "near miss," according to FAA records.
In April, a pilot was flying from north to south with a student and preparing to enter the Hudson corridor, following instructions printed on a flight chart. The pilot said he received information from air traffic control that conflicted with what was on the chart.
"I saw another aircraft heading toward us at the same altitude," the pilot wrote in a report made to the FAA. "I told the student to begin a descent to avoid the traffic."
The incident is classified as a "near miss" in the anonymous Aviation Safety Reporting System, which collects data about aviation incidents. The FAA had no comment, Peters said.
Nick Poulos, a leader of the Mid Island Pilots Club of Ronkonkoma and a pilot who has flown the Hudson corridor in his Piper Cherokee, said the reaction of club pilots to the new rules has been positive.
"Everybody thinks it's a great idea," Poulos said, adding that such rules probably would have prevented the collision.
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