Fatal midair crash over Hudson raises questions
The weekend midair collision between a sightseeing helicopter and a small plane over the Hudson River is the latest accident to involve an industry plagued by safety problems and calls for improved oversight, according to federal investigators.
On Sunday, divers retrieved a helicopter and four more bodies, but little is known about why a Liberty Helicopter Tours flight collided with a small plane, destroying both aircraft and killing nine.
The crash is at least the 14th involving a chartered sightseeing flight since 2000, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) records. Including Saturday’s collision, the accidents have killed 61 people.
“The air-tour business has been the subject of NTSB interest for 20 years,” said Peter Goelz, former managing director of the safety board.
“There is nothing particularly complex in the majority of the accidents,” Goelz said. “They fall back on pilot errors. Flying too close to another aircraft. Flying in weather they shouldn’t be flying in. These are all completely avoidable accidents.”
A government watchdog agency said last month that the air-tour industry is only one segment of the charter flight business that does not receive adequate oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Transportation Department’s inspector general said these so-called “on-demand” flights tend to be riskier than scheduled airlines, yet receive fewer inspections and have less strict standards.
Tracking fatalities
In 2007 and 2008, there were 33 fatal crashes on charter flights, killing 109 people, the report states. No passengers died on a scheduled airline flight in the same period.
“The number of fatalities from on-demand operations makes it imperative that FAA take action,” the report said.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency had taken several steps in recent years to improve safety in the air-tour industry, particularly in Hawaii, where many of the accidents have occurred. In its response to the inspector general, the FAA said it agreed with the findings.
The National Air Transportation Association, which represents charter companies, said the report contains inaccuracies, but the group called for safety improvements in the industry.
For the second time this year, New York and New Jersey were transfixed by a dramatic aircraft accident on the Hudson River.
Last January, a crippled US Airways Airbus A320 splashed down into the river after striking birds. Everyone on board survived and it was dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
On Saturday, a Piper PA-32 Saratoga private plane and a Eurocopter AS 350 helicopter hit with such force that they broke into pieces and plummeted into the murky waters of the river near the New Jersey shoreline. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the accident “unsurvivable.”
Three members of a Pennsylvania family in the single-engine plane, five tourists from Italy on the helicopter and the helicopter pilot died. Seven bodies had been recovered by Sunday, NTSB Chairwoman Debbie Hersman said.
The planes were flying in a corridor reserved for small private planes and helicopters flying below 1,100 feet over the river. Pilots are responsible for avoiding other traffic.
They are encouraged to announce themselves over a radio frequency reserved for aircraft in the area, said Bruce Landsberg, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Foundation. Another nearby helicopter pilot radioed the tour pilot to warn him, but there was no response, Hersman said.
Factors in other crashes
The NTSB has repeatedly urged the FAA and tour operators to improve safety, prompted by these findings:
•Sept. 23, 2005, three passengers drowned in the ocean off Kauai after their helicopter crashed. The helicopter was not equipped with emergency floats, and it sank so quickly that some passengers did not have time to undo their seatbelts.
•Sept. 24, 2004, four passengers and a pilot died when a tour helicopter struck a mountain on Kauai after flying into bad weather. The pilot was inexperienced with the weather, and the company made pilots work eight hours without a break.
•Sept. 20, 2003, six tourists and a pilot died near the Grand Canyon. The sightseeing pilot had frequently been reckless, but the tour operator had not followed up.
Liberty Helicopter Tours has had four other accidents with no serious injuries in the New York area since 2001, according to NTSB records.
A woman who answered the phone Sunday at Liberty said that nobody at the company could comment.