2009 Hudson River mid-air collision

On August 8, 2009, at 11:53 a.m. (15:53 UTC), nine people died when a tour Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopter and a small private Piper PA-32R airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft were in an area known as the "Hudson River VFR Corridor", which extends from the surface of the river to altitudes of 800 to 1500 ft at various locations along the Hudson River in the immediate area of New York City. Within this corridor, aircraft operate under visual flight rules (VFR), under which the responsibility to see and avoid other air traffic rests with the individual pilots rather than with the air traffic controller (ATC).

Because of the heavy commercial air traffic into Newark, LaGuardia, and Kennedy airports, an air traffic control clearance is required to operate in much of the airspace around the city. Since ATC is often unwilling to grant this discretionary VFR clearance because of traffic volume, many airplanes that need to transit the New York metro area use the VFR corridor as an alternative to going east of the city (over water) or west (toward Pennsylvania). The corridor is also heavily used by helicopter tour companies, which take passengers on sight-seeing tours of the New York skyline.

Background

Visual flight rules on the river corridors by Manhattan had been subject to considerable debate since the 2006 crash in which New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into an apartment building while flying using visual flight rules on the East River. This was the first aircraft collision over the Hudson River since 1976.

The collision, which occurred opposite 14th Street in Manhattan, was about 2 mi south of where US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, with no loss of life, after the plane suffered a complete loss of thrust following a bird strike.

Collision

The light aircraft was a 6-seat Piper PA-32R-300 Cherokee Lance built in 1976 and piloted by Steven Altman with two passengers. Altman was given clearance from the tower at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, at 11:48 a.m. to take off. It departed at 11:49 a.m. and was headed for Ocean City, New Jersey.

The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 built in 1997 carrying five Italian tourists and its pilot, took off from the West 30th Street Heliport at 11:52 a.m. At about the same time, Teterboro tower radioed Altman in the Piper at take-off requesting him to pick his flight path towards Ocean City, and indicate whether he wished to head there via the Hudson River, or take a southwest tack. Altman replied "Either". "Let me know" was the response from the tower, with Altman answering "OK, tell you what, I will take down the river."

Altman was then instructed to contact Newark Liberty International Airport, a directive he agreed to. However, he did not contact the tower at Newark. It later transpired that, in acknowledging the instruction to contact Newark, Altman had read back the wrong frequency (127.8 MHz instead of 127.85), an error that the controller did not correct. Soon after, a controller at Newark who was concerned about aircraft in the Piper's path contacted the Teterboro controller and asked him to attempt to re-establish contact. All attempts to contact Altman and change his aircraft's heading were unsuccessful. After the failure to contact Altman, a radar alert about a possible collision occurred in both the Newark and Teterboro towers. However, the two controllers did not remember seeing or hearing this alert.

While heading south down river, the airplane was seen to be behind the sightseeing helicopter, which was going about half the speed of the airplane. The pilot of another helicopter (who was refueling at the heliport) saw the impending accident, and attempted to warn both the airborne helicopter and the plane by radio, but received no response. At 11:53:14 a.m., the Piper's left wing crashed into the Eurocopter, severing the left wing of the airplane and rotor blades from the helicopter. Most witnesses reported the plane entering a nose dive while spiraling into the river, while the helicopter dropped into the water. The collision occurred at approximately 1100 ft MSL altitude and was caught on tape by an Italian tourist. Less than a minute after the collision occurred, the Teterboro controller contacted the Newark tower to inquire about the airplane, and was told that the airplane had not contacted Newark.

Nine people died in the collision. All recovered victims died from blunt trauma to the head, torso and extremities, according to the NYC medical examiner's office.

National Weather Service weather conditions at noon in New York City stations on the day of the collision were described as "sunny" or "partly sunny" with a temperature of between 73 and 75 F and variable wind speed of 3 – 10 mph.

Authorities said the Piper's "low wing" design made it difficult to see below the aircraft and the helicopter's rotors make it difficult to see above. In addition, neither small aircraft was required to have a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder.