Probe finds fault in air crash over Hudson River

Federal crash investigators Tuesday partly blamed a distracted air traffic controller for last year's deadly midair collision between a small plane and a tour helicopter flying over the Hudson River.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that Carlyle D. Turner, 39, a controller formerly of Lake Grove who used to work at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, should share the blame with the pilot of the small plane and the helicopter pilot.

Both pilots had an obligation to "see and avoid" each other as they flew over the Hudson on Aug. 8, 2009, investigators found. Three people on the small plane and six on the helicopter died in the crash.

The board voted to include Turner's actions as a probable cause of the collision and not just a contributing factor. Moments before the crash, Turner joked in a telephone conversation about barbecuing a dead cat found on airport property. The conversation distracted Turner from warning the small-plane pilot about the helicopter, investigators said.

"This controller is not one to follow procedure," said Robert L. Sumwalt, an NTSB member. "He was more interested in making that phone call than doing his job."

Turner was placed on paid leave after the crash. According to the FAA, Turner currently works as an air traffic controller in Newport News, Va. A woman who answered the telephone at that airport Tuesday said that it was Turner's day off.

A supervisor who was on duty but out of the Teterboro tower when the crash occurred was also disciplined. Dennis Moore of North Brunswick, N.J., was listed on the same website as being currently employed as a manager at the Teterboro tower.

The NTSB reached a 2-2 deadlock on listing Turner's conduct first in the probable cause of the crash. Christopher Hart, NTSB vice chairman, wasn't at the meeting because he was in San Bruno, Calif., investigating the gas line explosion there.

Board members Sumwalt and Earl F. Weener said they believed Turner's inattentiveness and failure to provide the small-plane pilot with a warning about the helicopter were the primary causes of the crash.

Board chairman Deborah Hersman and member Mark S. Rosekind voted against listing Turner's behavior as the likely cause of the collision.

The final vote, to list Turner's actions as the second item of the crash's probable cause, passed 3-1, with Sumwalt changing his vote to support it.

SEE PHOTOSHelicopter, plane collide over Hudson

NTSB investigators found that Turner ended his phone call with an airport worker four seconds before the midair collision. Had he not been distracted, Turner could have given the plane's pilot alerts about other traffic over the Hudson, investigators said.

Investigators also found that Turner could have instructed the plane's pilot to contact air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport sooner than he did, which would have also helped the pilot get traffic advisory reports from controllers.

National Transportation Safety Board Findings

Probable cause

Limitations of the "see-and-avoid" practice made it difficult for the pilot of the small Piper PA-32 airplane to see the helicopter until the final seconds before the collision as well as the Teterboro controller's "non-pertinent" telephone conversation that distracted him from air traffic duties.

Recommendations

• The Federal Aviation Administration should require specific operating altitude for both local and transiting aircraft in the Hudson River flight corridor, including publishing the altitudes in aeronautical charts.

• Develop standards for helicopter cockpit electronic traffic advisory systems that reduce nuisance alerts when nearby aircraft is in busy airspace.

• Once an electronic traffic advisory standard is set, require electronic news gathering operators, air tour operators and other helicopter operators to install the equipment on their aircraft.

- NTSB