See any military planes downtown? Well, this alert explains some: "Teterboro Airport in New Jersey is hosting a military air show from 9/17/09 through 9/19/09. Expect military aircraft flyovers above the New York Harbor and the Hudson River."
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."
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.
It was no Airbus A320 landing in the Hudson River, but the sight of a private plane, which had just taken off from Teterboro Airport, Route 46 in NJ and then crashing into a warehouse was definitely something else four years ago. Now, the Star-Ledger reports the U.S. Attorney's office has charged a charter company with "misrepresenting itself to customers as a certified charter operation." The feds say Platinum Jet Management "falsified flight records and routinely overloaded planes with fuel at airports where it was cheaper to top-off the tanks," and assistant U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said, "It is astounding -- and criminal -- that owners and operators of jet aircraft would repeatedly engage in such a dangerous game with passengers and airplanes loaded to the brim with jet fuel. What this indictment alleges is an anything-goes attitude by the defendants to get their planes in the air and maximize profits without regard to passenger safety or compliance with basic regulations."
We think NYC area hospitals should be on alert: TMZ reports that Britney Spears is headed to NYC. Well, if not NYC, something close:
"Spears left Van Nuys Airport at 4:00 PM PT this afternoon. We're told Brit Brit, Adnan and one other male passenger were on the plane. The plane is about to land at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Next stop ... unknown."Coupled with earlier TMZ reports about Spears apparently needing treatment for "severe bipolar disorder" (her family and health professionals "are working as a team" - a team that lets her jet across the country with her paparazzo boyfriend!), a visit to New York's club land could be the worst idea ever. Except for the local paparazzi. We wonder if the AP's NY bureau head sent a memo saying any Britney news was a "big deal" as the LA bureau did.
Wednesday night, recently installed barriers helped avert a disaster at Teterboro Airport. WABC 7 Eyewitness News reports that a ten ton jet missed a turn while taxiing after landing and "was headed toward the airport fence and busy Route 46." Luckily, it hit an "arrestor bed," which is a "system of collapsible concrete barriers that can stop a plane" yet not damage it. Brilliant! But what's extra lucky: The arrestors were only installed a few days ago.
Investigators have spent the hours after a plane, carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, crashed into an Upper East Side building gathering evidence from the street. Federal transportation investigators believe that the single engine Cirrus SR 20 was trying to make a U-turn when it turned left over the East River, based on something either Lidle or Stanger told an official at Teterboro Airport. According to radar, the plane had flown over the East River at an altitude of 700 feet and was at 500 feet a quarter mile north of 524 East 72nd Street.
Teterboro Airport was originally a World War I airplane manufacturing site.
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