Skies over Hudson have seen many close calls

NEW YORK - When a small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River last week, it was only the second time in decades that crowded skies near Manhattan led to a midair crash.

But an Associated Press review of pilots' safety reports found many more close calls in the same airspace in recent years, including several between small planes and helicopters flying the busy river corridor near the Statue of Liberty.

Almost all the incidents involved small aircraft flying at low altitude in an area where pilots pick their own routes and watch for conflicts without help from air traffic controllers.

In 2006, the pilot of a prop plane headed south for a sightseeing swing around the Statue of Liberty said he may have inadvertently passed just 50 feet above a helicopter flying a similar route.

In 1998, the pilot of an air taxi headed to LaGuardia Airport from a heliport on Manhattan's West Side reported coming within 200 to 300 feet of being clipped by a Cessna.

One pilot told of a harrowing 1996 flight down the Hudson to his home airport in Linden, N.J. He had three close calls in 20 minutes.

"Do we need another midair before the FAA ... gets its act together?!" he wrote.

Pilots provided the accounts via the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which allows fliers and controllers to voluntarily and anonymously disclose incidents that they felt involved a safety risk.

A database of those reports reviewed by the AP included at least 11 incidents filed since 1990 that described aircraft coming dangerously close over the Hudson.

Those reports involve only a tiny fraction of incidents within that corridor, and experts say that most close calls, regardless of where they happen in the country, go unreported, meaning the actual number of close calls is probably much higher.

Other close calls between helicopters and planes were reported in 2001, 2000, 1995, 1994, and 1996, when a plane on another sightseeing flight near the statue descended to avoid a helicopter and came within 300 feet of the water.

"I'm surprised we haven't had more incidents," said Chris Meigs, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who became familiar with the Hudson River airspace while flying for a commercial airline out of Newark, N.J.

"It's a really, really busy airspace," she said. "You need to be a fairly skilled pilot to handle it. There isn't much margin for error."

Saturday's crash, which killed nine people including three members of a Philadelphia-area family, renewed old questions about the safety of the Hudson River flyway for general-aviation aircraft.

It was the first midair collision between two pilots near the city's waterfront since 1983, when a seaplane coming in for a landing near Wall Street collided with a police helicopter over Brooklyn.

Air traffic above the East River was placed under tighter restrictions in 2006 after Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed when their plane failed to execute a proper turn in the tight airspace and plowed into a high-rise apartment building.

But the Hudson River is still governed by fewer rules. It is often bustling with helicopters and small planes; all must stay under 1,100 feet and stick to the river to avoid entering airspace reserved for big jets taking off from and landing at LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International Airports.

According to FAA statistics, more than twice as many general-aviation aircraft have been involved in near-collisions in the United States over the last 10 years as aircraft operated by commercial air carriers.

A majority of aircraft involved in close calls were operating under visual flight rules, where they can pick their own routes as long as they avoid other aircraft.

Only 164 of the 1,638 near-collisions reported in the last decade involved two aircraft flying on instruments under controllers' supervision.

By 2020, the FAA plans to require that all aircraft have ADS-B systems capable of transmitting their positions to other aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration said last night that it had placed an air traffic controller and the controller's supervisor on administrative leave in connection with Saturday's midair collision over the Hudson River.

The controller handling the small plane that collided with a helicopter was on the telephone, involved in "apparently inappropriate conversations," at the time of the crash, the agency said, and the supervisor on duty was not in the building then as required.

The FAA said it had begun disciplinary proceedings against the two. Several news organizations said the employees worked at Teterboro (N.J.) Airport.

But the employees' actions, the FAA said, did not appear to have contributed to the collision itself, which left nine dead.

- Associated Press

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