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Aviation Safety and the Midair Collision Over Hudson RiverOn Tuesday, September 15, 2009, Senator Lautenberg issued the following statement at an afternoon hearing on the midair collision over the Hudson River. "Mr Chairman, Last month, in the middle of travel and tourism season, and in the middle of the business day, there was a tragedy over the Hudson River. A small, private airplane that took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey collided with a tourist helicopter that took off from New York City. All nine people on both the plane and the helicopter lost their lives. Clearly our first thoughts are with the victims’ families: what began as a day of business and pleasure ended as a day of disaster and mourning. But today our thoughts also need to be on the future—preventing a tragedy like this from happening again. That’s the reason I wrote Chairman Dorgan and asked that we convene this hearing—and I want to thank him for agreeing and holding it today. We both agree this deadly crash highlights major safety concerns with the largely unregulated and densely congested airspace below 1,100 feet over the Hudson River, known as the Exclusion Area. More than 200 aircraft fly through this area every day and pilots must navigate the busy skies through a tactic known as ‘see and avoid.’ In this congested airspace, it is not enough for pilots to simply look both ways. I applaud FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt for convening the New York Airspace Taskforce immediately after this accident. The FAA Task Force and the NTSB have made preliminary recommendations to better manage this airspace and improve pilot and controller training. And we need the technology to track all aircraft operating in this airspace. So today, I am calling on the FAA to expedite the implementation of the Next-Gen Air Traffic Control technology in the New Jersey and New York airspace—and work closely with air traffic controllers throughout this transition. We also have to address the general concerns about on-demand aircraft. On-demand aircraft receive less oversight from the FAA and have more fatalities than commercial aircraft, according to a report issued by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General last month. In fact, on-demand aircraft are 50 times more likely to have a fatal accident than commercial carriers. I look forward to learning what the FAA intends to do to address the safety of these planes and their passengers. Mr. Chairman, the New Jersey-New York region is one of the busiest regions in the country for travel, tourism, and economic activity. We cannot allow people’s lives—or our economy—to be threatened by gaps in the safety of our aviation system.” # # #
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