Hudson River Crash Video Captures Midair Collision (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) - The Federal Aviation Administration says it has placed two employees on administrative leave in connection with last week's deadly mid-air collision over New York's Hudson River.

The FAA said Thursday night it has begun disciplinary proceedings against an air-traffic controller who was handling the small plane that collided with a tour helicopter and against a supervisor on duty at the time.

The FAA says the controller was involved in "apparently inappropriate conversations" on the telephone at the time of the accident. The agency says the supervisor was not in the building at the time as required.

However, the FAA says that the employees' actions don't appear to have contributed to the accident itself. Nine people died in the crash.

The tragic midair crash over the Hudson River that killed nine people last Saturday was caught on a chilling home video.

The video, shot by a tourist aboard a boat on the Hudson and obtained exclusively by NBC News, captures the moments before and the stunning impact when small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter shortly after noon that fateful day.

WATCH:

Comments

[ken coleman]

06:13 PM on 08/15/2009

I think the helicopter pilot was a stupid New Yorker driver.

[Helloalso]

12:59 PM on 08/14/2009

video streaming (or whatever it is called) is choppy. It stops then starts.

[FrankenPC]

07:30 PM on 08/14/2009

NBC is using the crappiest streamer in the universe.

[Aroddo]

11:36 AM on 08/14/2009

Horrible tv commentators ...

"I must warn you, the video is shocking and deeply disturbing.... MUST WATCH, GET POPCORN!"

[Aroddo]

11:40 AM on 08/14/2009

"You can hear the sheer horror of the onlookers..." - blah. You hear a couple of oh-my-gods ... not even particulary horrified either.

"First you see the helicopter, then the plane." - Yeah, that's right. We can see. That's whats in the video. No need to state the obvious.

[JenniferEccles]

09:01 AM on 08/15/2009

This plane crash brought to you by Dove Visibly Smooth.

[RTIII]

10:39 AM on 08/14/2009

I disagree with the commentator - he's NOT well informed and should NOT have been interviewed.

First of all, "proximity alarms" are just unheard of in small aircraft like that - they are used in commercial airliners and larger, vastly more expensive aircraft. ...I've been a pilot since the '70s and while I don't have a lot of experience with other people's aircraft, nobody know has one of these in their plane, and there are none in any of the planes at any of the places I've ever rented an aircraft, including those in high-traffic areas.

Further, the airplane was a low-wing monoplane. This means that the wing is fixed low on the fuselage and this limits visibility downward. The helicopter, meanwhile, has a full bubble shape with visibility impossible for an airplane - and good for it, too, because it can hover and is far more maneuverable. The airplane appears to have seen the helicopter - albeit a bit late - and has begun a starboard turn (right), thus making the helicopter even harder to see. The Hellicopter, meanwhile, which has far and away the best ability to avoid this accident, continues merrily along into the airplane's path...

While it's true both pilots had a chance to avoid this one, I feel the helicopter has a bit more responsibility for this one with its advantages in visibility, and maneuverability. And, it appears from their flight-paths that the airplane tried to react and the helicopter didn't.
.

[Phoebe917]

11:42 AM on 08/14/2009

i can't speak as a pilot, but i know that when i fly in very small charter planes, i believe they are cessnas, they have the proximity alarms. i've heard them myself while sitting close to the pilot or co-pilot.

[RTIII]

12:26 PM on 08/14/2009

I can believe that some charter companies find a way to afford them. This does not mean that they are common.
.

[LOCUTUS13]

01:35 PM on 08/15/2009

TCAS or "traffic collision avoidance system" is rarely carried on small single aircraft due to cost, weight and panel space. In fact some of these systems cost more than the aircraft that was hit by the helicopter.

[JBS]

02:27 PM on 08/14/2009

The fixed wing aircraft is overtaking the helicopter, approaching from approximately a 4 o'clock position.

That puts the fixed wing approach over the helicopter pilots right shoulder and would have put the onus on the fixed wing pilot to avoid the helicopter in front of him.

[LOCUTUS13]

01:38 PM on 08/15/2009

If the airplane was to the right of the airplane in convergence then the airplane had the right of way and the helicopter pilot was in error as per federal aviation regulation part 91. But I could be wrong.

[LOCUTUS13]

01:40 PM on 08/15/2009

that is the airplane was to the right of the helicopter, sorry.

[AnalyzeIT]

10:34 AM on 08/14/2009

He' s no Captain Sully for sure..............................

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

03:10 PM on 08/14/2009

Completely shameful comment.
Chopper rising from below.
Attitude of plane rising and veering.
Worse, not even funny.

[lawrencemuh]

10:02 AM on 08/14/2009

all that sky..how can two aircraft crash?

[JBS]

02:28 PM on 08/14/2009

Plain vanilla stupidity and failure to use the most basic of tools - Mark 1 eyeball.

[itsme leclerc]

09:09 AM on 08/14/2009

that kind of traffic shouldn't be allowed over a town at all. It's forbidden over all major towns in Europe. Next time they'll crash into a kindergarten.

[RTIII]

10:26 AM on 08/14/2009

...It was over a river, silly.
.

[ksflower]

12:18 PM on 08/14/2009

They said NEXT time, and I'm right there with him/her! Meaning that crash could just as well have been over a kindergarten (or hospital or hotel or apartment complex) and killed more than just the passengers!

[WasteNJ]

06:50 PM on 08/14/2009

Or two skyscrapers.

[Tblack]

08:17 AM on 08/14/2009

I'm really sorry that this trip turned so horrific for the Italians visiting. Just very sorry for you.
The city of New York should do everything in their power to assist the families involved.

[Hollywooddeed]

07:57 AM on 08/14/2009

We don't need to see this. Maybe the accident investigators, but not us. No reason for it, except morbid cheap thrills.

[MalloMel]

12:32 PM on 08/14/2009

Why did you look at it? What are you doing here talking about it? How's that thrill going?

[S Cooper]

01:13 PM on 08/14/2009

Unless you were standing over Hollywooddeed's shoulder, you have no idea whether s/he looked at it or not. I didn't and here I am.

[Amalek]

07:23 AM on 08/14/2009

The most remarkable thing about this story is that some tourist was filming an empty sky when two aircraft came into it and collided. Some people have strange lives.

[lunarmagpie]

08:10 AM on 08/14/2009

if you want to talk photo coincidences, check this one out:
http://www.canada.com/technology/Banff+squirrel+photo+gets+huge+attention/1889605/story.html

[Pippilangstrumpf]

09:35 AM on 08/14/2009

Every time you turn around there is a story about some private citiizen flying a plane and it crashes and all people aboard are killed.
I know several people who have a private pilot's license. I would not go up in a plane with them for all the money in the world.

[mdlawyer2]

12:02 PM on 08/14/2009

Airplane fatalities in the U.S. (both commercial and private) in 2008 - 502.
Automobile fatalities in the U.S. in 2008 - 37,261 (down almost 10% over the previous year). You'd better think twice about hopping into your neighbor's car or even worse yet a taxi. Life is a dangerous (and ultimately fatal) pursuit. Know your risks, measure your risks, reduce your risks, but never be afraid to live life to its fullest.

[respected]

06:22 AM on 08/14/2009

Families are grieving. Couldn't we wait to show this?

[jetscan]

07:03 AM on 08/14/2009

I don't think so. Others could learn from this.

[Alterion]

07:45 AM on 08/14/2009

I agree, this is embassassingly callous, even for the media.

Even worse was Keith Olbermann's explanation about why they were showing it, for 'forensic value' or something.

No, showing this 'snuff film' was for ratings, and ultimately, money.

[KIVPossum]

10:53 AM on 08/14/2009

More callous than the news showing the Taconic State Parkway crash non-stop?

[jetscan]

05:59 AM on 08/14/2009

My wife and I took a ride in one of those helicopters years ago, and I can tell you that the helo pilots are taking their job very seriously. I sat left from the pilot and had a clear view of everything, except (of course) the right side.

Nevertheless, all the helo pilots fly the same pattern everyday. They take off, and fly a narrow and straight course, make a U-turn at Staten Island and return to base. Although the pilots are giving the passengers some info about Manhatten/New York/New Jersey, there is NO erratic flying and NO change in altitude!!!! These helo's just cruise around.

Before we took off, we had to wait about 30 minutes but I didn't mind. I'm an aviation freak and watched the sky, felt like a little boy in a toy shop.

I wouldn't be surprised, if the NTSB will conclude that the pilot of the plane is to blame. He shouldn't have been on the same altitude and should have seen the helo from a distance. With or without help of the ATC.

(I must admit that the ATC was wrong being on the phone instead of watching his screen(s) and the supervisor not being in the building)

[kndam72]

05:25 AM on 08/14/2009

clearly trhis was the pilots fault.

As a pilot myself, I fail to understand what the at pilot was doing at such a low altitude. Apparently after leaving the local airport in NJ. I suspect he wanted to do some low flyover by the city and completely failed to see the helicopter doing what it has been doing for years alomst everyday over the river.

completely avoidable and that pilot's stupidity cost many lives.

[LOCUTUS13]

01:53 PM on 08/15/2009

If you have ever flown a Piper pa 28 you would know that it was imposable for the pilot flying the piper to see the helicopter till the last min. Go back and read part 91.1 of the FAR's. I also pulled out my New York sectionals and from what I can see the piper was flying properly within the law. The helicopter pilot was the one at fault.

[Igor Fokeev]

01:50 AM on 08/16/2009

I totally agree with you, my stepfather owns 2 airplanes, one of them is a piper cherokee PA-28 (i think the plane that crashed was a PA-32). I have been flying for six years now and have flown several low wing single engine aircraft (including the PA-28/32) with the same inherent visibility problem. The helicopter pilot on the other hand has all the visibility in the world, AND he was climbing. If he flew that same rout every day he should have been well aware of the high volume of small general aviation aircraft in that area. First thing you learn when your learning to fly is observe and avoid. I dont know what the helicopter pilot was observing, but it was certainly not the traffic around him.
And for the record not all TCAS systems are expensive. We have one, its small, it picks up signals from all aircraft with a transponder within 2 miles and warns us with an alarm and a reading (ex: traffic 4 o'clock 500ft) and it was under $1000.

[CynAnne]

05:23 AM on 08/14/2009

So very awful (I haven't been able to watch the video in it's entirety yet..it's just too horrible to contemplate)..condolences to all the families involved in this terrible tragedy...

[MadHeart]

05:08 AM on 08/14/2009

This is a horrible situation. In spite of being given 15 minute breaks every 2 hrs, a controller evidently makes or receives a phone call after handing off the plane to another airport and his supervisor wasn't even in the building, as required. Has it gotten to the point that even jobs are crucial as these (planes, trains, buses, even driving your personal car) are interrupted for personal phone calls?

What is the problem with people in this country that they cannot devote their time to a job they're being paid for, and leave personal affairs for their own time (breaks and lunch, even)? When I was working FT with 2 kids, I was not to be called except in emergencies (their caretakers knew this, too), much less using time for petty conversations, and I worked in an office and posed no danger, no lives in the balance, either. When it comes to their phones, Americans seem to have tossed discipline out the window. In the scheme of things, you're no more important than anyone else, so get used to it, esp. when the lives of others are at stake--those lives are just as important as yours.