NEW YORK — Flying a small plane above the Hudson River can feel like ducking into a crowded urban canyon — with skyscrapers on each side and more than a dozen helicopters and planes all buzzing lower than the nearby Empire State Building.
The city’s worst air disaster in eight years has drawn calls for more regulation of the air corridor over the Hudson, which is less than three-quarters of a mile wide at the site where a helicopter and a small plane collided in midair Saturday.
It serves as an air highway for helicopters, police patrols and small planes flown by pilots of varying ability.
“That’s not a lot of space,” said Ray Adams, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport. “And it’s not unusual at all for us to have 10 to 20 aircraft between the George Washington Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.”
Pilots are largely free to choose their own route, radioing their position periodically but not communicating regularly with air-traffic controllers.
Planes often fly as low as 500 feet to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty.
Pilots must stay under 1,100 feet to avoid straying into jetways used by commercial aircraft.
They also aren’t allowed to fly over Manhattan’s tall buildings or stray into restricted zones around several major airports.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called for toughening flight restrictions over the Hudson, and New York City Council Member Gale Brewer said tourist helicopters should be banned from the corridor.
The National Transportation Safety Board will look into the congestion issues, Chairman Debbie Hersman said Sunday.
But Mayor Michael Bloom berg, himself a recreational pilot, has argued that keeping the skies open to general aviation aircraft is necessary for the city’s economy.
Latest developments
•Divers pulled four more bodies out of the Hudson River on Sunday in their search for victims. Two of the nine people who died remain missing.
•The five tourists on the helicopter were from the Bologna, Italy, area: Michele Norelli, 51; his son Filippo, 16; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; his wife, Tiziana Pedroni, 44; and their son Giacomo Gallazzi, 15. The pilot was Jeremy Clarke, 32, of Lanoka Harbor, N.J.
•The plane’s pilot was Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pa. Also in the plane were Altman’s brother Daniel, 49, of Dresher, Pa.; and his son, Douglas, 16.
•A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crane lifted the wreckage of the helicopter from 30 feet of water.
•Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are reviewing flight data from Teterboro Airport, where the plane took off Saturday. The plane was flying at about 1,100 feet at the time of the crash.
The Associated Press
