FAA Warned About Concerns Before Mid-Air Plane Crash

Washington, DCLiterally a month before the New York City plane crash that involved a mid-air collision with a tourist helicopter in the congested air corridor above the Hudson River, the US Department of Transportation slammed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for lax oversight of the 'on-demand' flight industry. The August 8th airplane crash into a helicopter in mid-air killed all nine occupants of the two aircraft.

While the commercial airline industry is heavily regulated, the on-demand industry is less-so. Aircraft flying below 1100-feet do not have to file a flight plan and instead operate visually. In other words, it's the honour system at play and a pilot needs to keep his eyes peeled to ensure he is not about to fly into someone else who is already up there.

That appears to be what happened above the famed Hudson River in Lower Manhattan on August 8th, although the investigation into what happened is just beginning. Eye-witnesses have reported that a small plane with three people aboard flew up and into the back of the tourist helicopter. The resulting collision sheared off the right wing of the plane and the primary rotor of the helicopter, dooming both aircraft and all those aboard.

Robert Gottheim, district manager for Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, who represents the West Side of Manhattan, said in comments published in the New York Times on Monday, "We came to the conclusion that it was the Wild West out there, totally unregulated, and no one knows where these pilots are, no one has a flight plan, it is so congested."

That was in response to a 2005 incident that had Senator Charles E. Schumer calling for a shutdown of the Hudson River corridor entirely to general aviation traffic after a wayward plane caused a security scare.

A story from the August 9th issue of the Daily Telegraph in the UK references an Associated Press interview with Debbie Hersman, chairwoman of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), during which she said that in the NTSB's view "there is a disparate level of oversight" when comparing the commercial air corridor with that of on-demand flights.

The warning came less than a month before the August 8th mid-air collision that took place at high noon on a bright clear day in the sky above the Hudson River. The mid-air collision was witnessed by scores of horrified onlookers in the busy metropolis.

There have been prior calls for greater government control of the airspace over the Hudson. Saturday's accident has re-ignited those calls—and particularly with the number of charter helicopter companies that take tourists on sightseeing flights. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cautioned at his news conference just hours after the accident that it would be unwise to react against the status quo until the NTSB has completed its investigation.

However, Saturday's tragedy could be a sign of a potentially bigger problem. The Telegraph reports that since 2002 the NTSB has made no fewer than 16 recommendations related to safety of the for-hire flight industry.

The FAA has yet to implement any of them