The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are beginning their investigation of the fatal small plane crash that claimed the lives of five people yesterday. Investment banker Jeffrey Buckalew was flying a single-engine turboprop plane, with his wife Corinne, their young children Jackson and Meriwether and the family dog, plus his business colleague Rakesh Chawla, from Teterboro Airport in NJ to Atlanta when their plane suddenly made an "uncontrolled descent," apparently exploding, and eventually hit part of Interstate 287 in Harding, NJ. A nearby homeowner said to the NY Times, "This plane was very loud because it was so close, and its engines would stop and start. And the pilot was trying to rev it to keep the engines going." more ›

A third woman has died of injuries sustained in last month's tragic helicopter crash into the East River. The Post reports that 60-year-old Harriet Nicholson died this morning at Bellevue Hospital of "respiratory complications of near drowning." 40-year-old Sonia Marra was trapped inside the sunken helicopter and died after rescuers couldn't extract her, and her partner 43-year-old Helen Tamaki passed away from complications a week after the crash. Paul Nicholson and pilot Paul Dudley survived with minor injuries. more ›

Sad news from Bellevue Hospital: a second passenger who was critically injured in the October 4 East River helicopter crash has died. Helen Tamaki, who was visiting from Sydney, Australia, passed away from complications caused by suffering a lack of oxygen to her brain, hospital officials said. Her death was ruled an accident. more ›

The model of the helicopter that crashed into the East River on Tuesday, killing one passenger, is apparently susceptible to rotor problems. And the National Transportation Safety Board has ruled out the pilot's belief that the chopper, which plunged into the river upside down, failed due to engine problems and are now investigating wind issues, as well as whether weight restrictions were followed. more ›

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Deborah Hersman testified at a U.S. Senate committee hearing that the tour bus that crashed on I-95 in the Bronx earlier this month, killing 15 passengers, was going near 78 mph. The speed limit for commercial vehicles is 55 mph. The bus, operated by World Wide Tours, overturned, slid 500 feet, and then crashed into a highway sign pole, while sheared the bus in half. more ›

Last month, an American Airlines Boeing 777 from JFK was in a near-miss with two U.S. military C 17 cargo planes 80 miles south of NYC. The plans were within a mile of each other and National Transportation Safety Board announced it was investigating the incident today. A source told the Post, "Authorities suspect errors by Long Island-based air controllers and the jetliner’s pilot in the incident." more ›

In the wake of yesterday's Staten Island Ferry crash, many are wondering why the Andrew J. Barbieri—the ship also responsible for a crash in 2003 that killed 11—is still in commission. The second-oldest ship in the Staten Island Ferry fleet, the Barbieri had engine failure problems on its christening in 1981. The ship was named for a Curtis High School coach who died in 1979, but yesterday his son told the Times, "Papa would be concerned about the ferry. He’d say, ‘If the boat has safety problems, get rid of it.’ ” more ›

Way to deflate last year's feel-good story of the year: The National Transportation Safety Board is issuing its final report on the amazing Hudson River splash landing of Flight 1549 in January 2009. But the Wall Street Journal reports, "Pilots who used simulators to recreate the accident—including suddenly losing both engines after sucking in birds at 2,500 feet—repeatedly managed to safely land their virtual airliners at La Guardia." more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board says that the air traffic controller on duty at Teterboro Airport during the crash between a small plane and sightseeing helicopter had a "light" workload and "nothing should have prevented him" from alerting the small plane's pilot about aircraft in his route. The crash, which killed nine people, occurred as the controller were on the telephone, joking about a dead cat. Additionally, the NTSB has made suggestions for air safety over the Hudson River, "including having helicopters and planes fly at separate altitudes" and that "pilots who are to fly in the Hudson River air corridor and around the Statue of Liberty complete a special training course." more ›

The AP got hold of transcripts of Teterboro Airport's air traffic controller conversations on August 8—the day a small plane and sightseeing helicopter collided over the Hudson River—and found the controller in charge of guiding the small plane was joking was about barbecuing a cat. Before the small plane had taken off, the controller had called a woman in the airport's operations center about a dead cat that needed to be removed from the runway. The Daily News reports, "Two minutes after the [small plane], the controller called the woman back," saying, "We got plenty of gas in the grill? Fire up the cat." The woman replied, "Ooh, disgusting ... that thing was disgusting." The pair bantered about the cat some more "while the controller directed traffic. Seconds before the accident, the controller said, 'Damn' - and ended the call." The National Transportation Safety Board has said radar data showed many aircraft in the small plane's path, but the controller never alerted the plane's pilot, a claim the National Air Traffic Controllers Association disputes. The FAA, which suspended the controller and his supervisor, has said the conversation was inappropriate but probably did not cause the crash that left nine dead. more ›

New footage from a tourist on a Circle Line cruise showing last Saturday's collision between a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter was released tonight, just as the FAA announced that the air traffic controller and his supervisor at Teterboro Airport in NJ were suspended. Apparently the air traffic controller was on the phone with his girlfriend while handling the small plane's flight and his supervisor had left the room. The FAA said, in a statement, "We learned that the controller handling the Piper flight was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident... We also learned that the supervisor was not present in the building as required." more ›

NYPD divers and the Army Corps of Engineers managed to raise some of the wreckage of the small plane that crashed into a helicopter this past Saturday. Two more bodies were recovered, meaning that all nine victims' bodies have been found; three were on the plane while six were on the sightseeing helicopter. The Hudson River's murky conditions have been an obstacle to divers during the recovery effort; they explained to the Times they have been doing much of the search by touch. more ›

Investigators continue searching the Hudson River for other remains and wreckage from Saturday's tragic collision between a small plane and sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River. So far, seven bodies have been found, as well as helicopter wreckage. Authorities are hoping to pull the plane's wreckage from the water, but they say that finding the two remaining bodies is their first priority. more ›

As long as he lives, U.S. Airways Captain Chesley Sullenberger will travel the land to tell the amazing story of his successful emergency landing on the Hudson River in January; this morning found him in Washington to testify during hearings held by the National Transportation Safety Board on air safety and the growing threat of bird strikes. (According to the Times, researchers counted 229 people killed and 210 aircraft destroyed as a result of bird strikes in the last 20 years.) And yesterday the Smithsonian Institution announced that isotopic analysis of goose remains found in Flight 1549's engines confirmed that the birds were migratory, thus suggesting that habitat destruction would not have prevented the accident. more ›

According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, "The captain of a commuter plane that crashed Feb. 12 near Buffalo, N.Y., had flunked numerous flight tests during his career and was never adequately taught how to respond to the emergency that led to the airplane's fatal descent." The 49 passengers and crew members aboard Continental Airlines Flight 3407, which took off from Newark and was headed to Buffalo, were killed, as was a man on the ground. The plane was a Bombardier Q400; the WSJ adds, "Capt. Marvin Renslow had never been properly trained by the company to respond to a warning system designed to prevent the plane from going into a stall...As the speed slowed to a dangerous level, setting off the stall-prevention system, he did the opposite of the proper procedure, which led to the crash, these people said." The NTSB will be holding three days of hearings about the crash in D.C., starting tomorrow; the NY Times reports that while the FAA requires "sterile" (meaning no irrelevant conversation) cockpits below 10,000 feet, "According to one investigator familiar with the contents of the cockpit voice recorder from the plane, the pilots’ 'heads weren’t in the game.'" more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board revealed a number of details about the Continental Express flight to Buffalo that crashed on Thursday night. more ›

The Buffalo News reports, "Forensic anthropologists and aviation experts are walking grids in Clarence Center, where Continental Express Flight 3407 went down, trying to determine what caused the craft to take a horrific vertical dive." They will mark every spot "where human remains, pieces of the aircraft and personal effects are recovered." The flight's 49 passengers and crew were killed, as was the owner of the home where the plane crashed. According to the NTSB, recovery of the bodies may take several days; here is a partial list of victims. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board retrieved the flight data recorders—aka the "black boxes"—from Continental Flight 3407, which crashed just outside of Buffalo in Clarence Center, NY last night. All 49 passengers and crew members were killed, as was one person on the ground, whose home was leveled by the commuter plane (an apparently new Bombardier Q400). Governor Paterson visited the crash site and said, "We're all connected, and we find out how connected we are on days like this." This was the first commercial American airline accident with fatalities since August 2006. more ›

Some NJ residents did a double take when the fuselage of a jet, situated on a flatbed truck, rolled down streets. And it was no ordinary fuselage—it was U.S. Airways Flight 1549, which landed into the Hudson River on January 15. According to the Jersey Journal, freelance photographer Richard J. McCormack reported "that the fuselage, which had been brought to Weeks Marine Inc. in Jersey City for the federal investigation after it crash landed in the Hudson River, was supposed to head to Newark via the Officers Shawn Carson and Robert Nguyen Memorial Bridge, but the plane couldn't fit and hit the top of the bridge." more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun to inspect the left engine from US Airways Flight 1549, which landed in the Hudson River on January 15, after its engines failed. Investigator Robert Benzon said, "We'll see how it was affected by bird strike." The engine had been lodged in the Hudson and was found by sonar—the NY Times says readings found "cone-shaped object at the end of what looked like a long skid mark, roughly in line with 52nd Street." more ›

Almost a week after US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River, NYPD divers have found the missing left engine in the waters. According to Newsday, the divers "discovered the engine about 3 p.m. in the middle of the river about 60 feet deep...The NYPD divers had been held back for three days because of heavy ice floes after sonar located a large object on the river bottom on Sunday." The U.S Army Corps of Engineers will assist in lifting the engine more ›

We know that Captain Chesley Sullenberger did a great job and how co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles gave the shirt off his back to a passenger...but did you know Flight 1549's flight attendants Sheila Dail, Doreen Welsh and Donna Dent have a combined 92 years of experience among them? Passenger Billy Campbell said another passenger had opened a rear door, but Welsh was quick to close it so the water would stop coming in: "The flight attendant then made a great call and said, 'Turn around, you've got to get out on the wing.'" The crew wants to remain under the radar, so to speak: They want the media to "respect their desire to refrain from participating in interviews until further notice" during the NTSB's investigation. They also give their "sincere thanks and appreciation for the overwhelming support, praise and well wishes they have received from the public around the world." more ›

Investigators say that Flight 1549 lost both its engines' power at the same time on Thursday afternoon. The US Airways Airbus A320 ended up in the Hudson River after an apparent bird strike. more ›

US Airways Flight 1549 was removed from the Hudson River yesterday, and the National Transportation Safety Board said that they had recovered both black boxes—the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. The two recorders (flight data recorder pictured below) were taken to Washington D.C. for analysis. more ›

Evening Update: Scroll down for additional video footage of the landing. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the fatal crash of a single-engine plane carrying three people, including a Long Island man headed to Boston for cancer treatment. The flight was arranged by nonprofit Angel Flight, which gives free flights to people needing medical care; pilot Joseph Baker and Riverhead resident Robert and Donna Gregory were killed. It does not appear a distress call was made before the BeechcraftG35 Bonanza plane crashed in Easton, MA supermarket parking lot on Tuesday. The Gregorys' family are preparing to meet with counselors on how to tell their four-year-old twins their parents have died. more ›

The FAA made immediate changes to the take off and landing procedures at JFK Airport, after two jets came within 600 feet of crashing into each other yesterday afternoon. The incident was the second near collision at the airport in a week, and personnel from the National Transportation Safety Board were at JFK investigating the circumstances of the first incident when the second occurred. more ›