Posted on 08/08/2009 2:42:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A small plane collided with a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River Friday on crystal clear summer afternoon, ripping the rotor blades from the helicopter and severing one of the plane's wings, sending both aircraft plunging into the murky water and killing all nine people on board.
Witnesses to the crash described how the debris from the two aircraft disappeared within seconds beneath the water's surface, and rescue workers soon determined there were no survivors.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the plane, which had just left from Teterboro, New Jersey, was carrying a pilot and two passengers, including a child. The helicopter, which had just taken off from Manhattan's West 30th Street heliport, carried a pilot and five Italian tourists. The crash occurred around noon.
"It would appear that the airplane ran into the back side of the helicopter," Bloomberg said, saying the precise cause of the collision may not be known for days or weeks, pending an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
"It is a great tragedy," Bloomberg said, calling this one of "the largest accidents resulting in death in the New York area in modern days." The last deadly plane crash in New York was November 12, 2001 -- two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- when American Airlines flight 587 taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport crashed into a residential area of Queens, killing 260 people on the plane and five on the ground
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I get tired of politicians like Bloomberg who just can’t pass up the opportunity to exploit a tragedy for their own political gain.
Amen.
Wonder when he’ll call for a ban on general aviation.
While I might agree with you in principal, he is the mayor here, and naturally he’ll be the first one they go to for a response — particularly considering that this is a national story (Wash Post) rather than a local report (say, NY Post or Daily News).
The Mayor has no business trying to get face time on TV over something like this. What a whore.
Maybe more facts will emerge. But judging from the story and the map, it looks to me as if the light plane was at fault. Tourist and commuter helicopters regularly take off from pads by the Hudson River (and the East River). Teterboro Airport is well north of that. And, unless we haven’t been told something to explain it, a small, private plane has no business flying over the mid Hudson just off of Manhattan.
I suspect that the pilot or passengers wanted to view the Manhattan skyline. Big mistake.
Yeah. He was all over this from the get go. The usual Press Conference to provide an elected official with face time.
Only in a secondary sense, Cicero. The real fault should be assigned to George Bush.
The rules for general aviation over the Hudson River have been in effect for thirty years!
If Obama had known of the danger, he would have caused a gust of wind to gently sweep the aircraft away from each other. Then had a teachable moment with the pilots about VFR and air safety after they landed.
Exactly! That is why I am curious to know WHO was on the plane and the helicopter.....
The Hudson river is a major thoroughfare for light planes . It's also extremely crowded.
The Piper Saratoga involved in the incident is a relatively fast plane with a long cowl so if he was flying slow it would be difficult to see directly in front.
Helicopter tours have reserved airspace so I suppose whoever was in the wrong place was at fault
And he could have denounced the misguided and wrong headed wind policy that he inherited from the previous administration!
Absolutely correct. Bloomberg is an ass.
Can we say "hyperbole?" That DUI crash on the Taconic Parkway last week killed eight people. This killed nine. Sad, but hardly 9-11 or even American 587.
LOL
RIP.
Yeah, thanks. I had dinner with a friend tonight who flies a light plane, and he told me the rules for flying up and down the Hudson.
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