Breaking news: Two Plane Collide at Hudson River 9 People Die

9 Dead After Copter and Plane Collide Over Hudson
Above the River, Pilots Must Serve as Their Own Traffic Controllers (August 9, 2009)
Families Shattered as a Dream Trip From Italy Ends in Death (August 10, 2009)
A Flight Later, 2 Deaths Avoided (August 9, 2009)

Steven M. Altman, 60, pilot of the private plane that crashed. More Photos >
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Read All Comments (150) »The cause of the accident was under investigation. But what perhaps thousands of people out on a crystalline summer day saw from both sides of the Hudson was a stunning, low-altitude accident in which the plane rolled up and into the helicopter, striking with a crack like thunder as the helicopter’s blades and one of the plane’s wings flew off, and then both aircraft fell and vanished into the river.

As witnesses watched from parks and balconies, three bodies were recovered, one floating in the water and two others from wreckage believed to be that of the helicopter, located by divers on the murky riverbed 30 feet down. The search for the plane was impeded by visibility of only two or three feet at the bottom.

But officials held out no hope of survivors.

“This is not going to have a happy ending,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference, contrasting the outcome with the spectacular landing of a US Airways jetliner in the icy Hudson on Jan. 15, when all 155 on board were rescued by ferries and emergency boats.

From all appearances, the mayor said in somber tones, the crash was “not survivable.” He said divers searching for the remaining victims, and then trying to recover the submerged aircraft, would proceed with caution to avoid further loss of life. “This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission,” he said.

The victims included five Italian tourists and a pilot aboard the helicopter, which had just taken off from the West 30th Street heliport in Manhattan. Aviation authorities identified the pilot and owner of the plane as Steven M. Altman, of Ambler, Pa., and said he carried two passengers; a law enforcement official said one was Mr. Altman’s brother Daniel Altman and the other a teenage boy.

Reached at home, the pilot’s wife, Pamala, said her husband was licensed and had been scheduled to fly his plane on Saturday from Teterboro Airport in northern New Jersey to Ocean City, on the Jersey Shore.

The Italian tourists — a woman, two men and two youths, according to the Italian Embassy — were traveling together in a group of about a dozen relatives and friends. People familiar with their plans said they lived in the Bologna area. Others in the group were taken to a Red Cross center on West 49th Street, where they received counseling.

It was the worst air accident in the New York City area since Nov. 12, 2001, when 265 people were killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor, Queens, as it took off from Kennedy International Airport for the Dominican Republic. It was the first fatal crash since Oct. 11, 2006, when a small plane flying over the East River hit a 42-story building on Manhattan’s East Side, killing the Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor.

Saturday’s crash raised questions about the scores of virtually unregulated low-altitude flights every day in a busy corridor over the Hudson. Helicopters and small planes may fly over the river under a 1,100-foot ceiling, well below a 5,000-foot minimum altitude in airspace reserved for airliners. Mayor Bloomberg, asked about federal rules for the corridor, said he did not favor changes in the rules, citing the city’s interests in tourism.

As investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board began an inquiry that was expected to take weeks or months, the convergence of the doomed aircraft seemed wildly improbable in retrospect. Federal Aviation Administration officials, citing radar tracks, said the airplane took off from Teterboro at 11:50 a.m., after stopping there for a half-hour and picking up a passenger. The plane arrived over the Hudson at 11:52 and turned south.

The helicopter, a European-made craft owned by a Liberty Helicopters, took off from the West 30th Street heliport at almost the same time for a sightseeing tour. The helicopter took off, headed out over the river, turned south and climbed to between 500 and 1,000 feet.

On a sun-drenched Saturday that beckoned many out of doors, there were countless witnesses to the dramatic denouement — joggers, bikers, strollers, people lunching in restaurants and lounging in high-rise apartments lining the Hudson — but many got only glimpses of what happened, looking out over the milewide river when they heard what sounded like distant thunder in a mostly clear sky.

Many said the small airplane, a white-and-red, single-engine Piper PA-32R, came up behind and under the helicopter. A Liberty pilot watching from the heliport radioed to warn the copter, said Deborah A. P. Hersman, chairwoman of the safety board.

“You have a fixed wing behind you,” he said. But he got no response.

The plane suddenly went into a left-turning roll, banking steeply, as if its pilot was unaware of impending danger, and at 11:56 a.m. rammed the rear underside of the copter not far off the Hoboken shoreline.

The aircraft appeared to break apart in midair — the plane’s left wing tumbling, the detached rotor blades of the helicopter spinning away like a child’s toy, witnesses said. The fuselages parted in a puff of dark smoke and fell away into the choppy blue-gray Hudson. It took only seconds, and the two craft were gone in the eerie silence that followed.

Colin Rich, 26, of Brooklyn, saw the crash from a river park in Manhattan: “Both appeared to be heading south, and the plane rolled into the side of the helicopter. Right before that, it appeared very suspect because I saw them getting so close to each other.”

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