Results tagged “smallplane”

More on August's tragic small plane-tour helicopter crash over the Hudson: National Transportation Safety Board says that the small plane pilot "read back the wrong radio frequency to an air traffic controller but wasn't corrected." The pilot was never corrected and never got Newark Liberty Airport's right frequency; a minute later, his plane crashed with the helicopter. The NY Times points out, "The Teterboro controller did not catch the discrepancy in the readback. At the time, the controller, alone in the tower, was in the midst of a personal phone call, and in addition, there was other voice traffic on the radio frequency at that point." The plane's three occupants were all killed, as were the chopper's six.

Earlier today, a small plane—carrying a flight instructor and a student pilot—crashed at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall parking lot in NJ. The Record reports that plane "[crushed] its nose gear... bringing it within 100 yards of JC Penney. The plane departed from Essex County airport and shortly after takeoff the pilot reported a rough running engine. He then tried to put the plane down in the mall parking lot, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said."

A small plane, approaching Teterboro Airport, crashed right by NJ's Route 46 around 3 a.m. this morning. MyFoxNY reports, "Port Authority officials say the pilot and co-pilot walked away from the scene. No one else was aboard the plane. One man was airlifted to St. Barnabas Medical Center with serious burns and the other was taken by ground to Hackensack Medical Center." According to witnesses, the plane, which had been carrying medical supplies, apparently overshot the airport and landed in a field by Route 46. The Star-Ledger says witnesses saw a fireball. The men were able to crawl out of the plane and walk over to a bus stop, where they sat on a curb. One responding officer said, "The one who had more burns sat there and was in a daze. I saw the wreckage, they both said 'We were in the plane.' I was a little taken back, you know."

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.

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."

Yesterday, a memorial was held for five of the victims killed in Saturday's collision between a small plane and sightseeing helicopter. The service, at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral home on the Upper East Side, was brief and the hearses for the five Italian tourists—Michele Norelli, 51 and his son Filippo Norelli, 16, and their friends Fabio Gallazzi, 49, and Tiziana Pedrone, 44, and their son, Giacomo Gallazzi, 15—filled the street. An Italian tourist told the Post, "There are no words to describe what this family is going through. They went for a holiday and came home in a coffin."

       

A total of four bodies have been found from yesterday's tragic collision between a small plane and sightseeing helicopter. The crash, which presumably claimed the lives of nine people, occurred around noon over the Hudson River, off Hoboken, NJ. Witnesses, who had been enjoying the beautiful day in parks along the river, described the impact as sounding like a "cannon"; two told the Daily News, "I saw the chopper hit the water like it was a toy. The plane kept flying a little bit. It fell, not too far" and "I thought it was impossible they could crash. And then they actually did. The plane kept flying, the helicopter went straight down."

          

Update 10:30 p.m.: The National Transportation Safety Board says that a total of three bodies have been recovered from the Hudson; it is not clear whether the bodies are from the plane and/or helicopter. The diving recovery operations were called off in evening and will resume in the morning.