11 AUG 2009 _______________________________________ *Officials Demand Tighter Control, or Even a Ban, of Hudson Air Traffic *NTSB to probe NYC airspace rules *Airlines PNG Plane Carrying 13 People Missing *NTSB head Debbie Hersman says FAA failed to act on 'scores of recommendations' on shared air space *GE Aerospace, FAA, to study how to integrate UAVs into U.S. national air space *************************************** Officials Demand Tighter Control, or Even a Ban, of Hudson Air Traffic A half-dozen elected officials lined up along the Hudson River on Monday and called for changes in how the airspace above the river is controlled in the aftermath of Saturday's fatal collision of a plane and helicopter. A news conference, near West 30th Street, was interrupted by a copter. One official suggested requiring all aircraft to have crash avoidance technology. Collision Revives Debate Over Whether Copter Tours Are Worth the Cost (August 11, 2009) Poor visibility and treacherous currents on the river hampered efforts by the Police Department's scuba team to recover the two remaining bodies and the plane. One called for banning all air traffic along the corridor if the federal authorities did not have the technology or manpower to monitor and manage it; another called for requiring all aircraft to have crash avoidance technology. Even Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a pilot and the man in charge of safeguarding the city's residents and its economy, said at a later news briefing that he would welcome responsible changes in the oversight of the air corridor. "Amateur hour in the sky is over," said the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. Hours later, Deborah A. P. Hersman, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating Saturday's crash, said the safety board had made dozens of recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration and the touring helicopter industry about improving safety in unrestricted airspace and in the air tour industry, many of which were not acted on. She cited no specific recommendations, and did not say whether any of them might have had relevance to the crash on Saturday, the cause of which is far from determined. But she did seem to express some frustration. "We believe that if those recommendations were to be implemented, aviation safety would be improved," she said at a news briefing in Hoboken, N.J. "I think the fact that we are here today shows that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done." But interviews with aviation experts raised questions about the relevance and practicality of many of the initial suggestions made by the local elected officials. The F.A.A. has neither the equipment nor personnel to manage the traffic that flies in the unrestricted space up to 1,100 feet above the Hudson in a way that would meaningfully limit accidents, said Barrett Byrnes, who retired last year as a controller at the Kennedy International Airport tower. "The problem is the tall buildings," Mr. Byrnes said, saying the structures block radar signals so air traffic controllers cannot see the aircraft to keep them separated. "These airplanes are at 400 or 500 feet, and the buildings are getting in the way." In addition, he and others said, there are nowhere near enough controllers to handle the "weekend warriors," private pilots who turn up on weekends all year long for a jaunt or a sightseeing trip. Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, a Democrat who represents the West Side of Manhattan, dismissed those assertions. Another idea floated again over the last two days would be to slice the airspace horizontally and reserve the lower altitudes for helicopters. That might help, experts said, but sometimes helicopters have to climb to higher altitudes to reach their destinations. The planes and helicopters, others have suggested, might be forced to fly during designated times of day and separate from each other. But Peter Goelz, a former managing director at the transportation safety board, said each change could create unintended consequences. "Let's say you limit the hours that fixed-wing planes can utilize the space," Mr. Goelz said. "Does that mean that the remaining open hours become more crowded because you have cut off four or five hours a day of usage? Does that mean you will have, instead of six planes per hour, 18 planes per hour?" Some experts say it is not yet clear that there is any particular problem with the Hudson corridor, despite the crash that left nine dead on Saturday. In most years, there are a handful of midair collisions nationwide among general aviation aircraft; at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a group that lobbies for the rights of plane owners, Chris Dancy, a spokesman, said the most recent such collision in the group's records for the Hudson was in 1963. In the waters of the Hudson River on Monday, poor visibility and treacherous currents hampered efforts to recover the two remaining bodies and the plane from the crash. Divers located a man's body in the wreckage of the airplane, but were unable to dislodge it, said Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman. The plane, in the middle of the river, about 60 feet below the surface, was secured and marked with buoys. The bodies of seven victims have been recovered, and autopsies on those victims showed that they died of blunt impact injuries of the head, torso and extremities, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office said. Part of the debate about future management of the air involves emerging technology that could provide pilots with a "moving map" that showed the location over the ground of their aircraft and all others in the area. But most private planes are flown by a single person, who may have trouble switching rapidly from looking at a screen to looking out the window. Workload, in fact, may be an issue in this crash; the fixed-wing plane completed a turn and was told to check in by radio with the tower at Newark Liberty International Airport, but failed to do so. It is not uncommon for busy pilots to have misheard or forgotten the proper frequency or incorrectly tuned the radio. A former air traffic control official from the F.A.A., who asked to remain anonymous because his current employer, in the aerospace field, forbids him to be quoted by name, said that a wiser course would be to wait for the safety board to make its findings and "see if the facts relate to procedures or airspace rules." That official added that while pilots in the Hudson corridor, as in similar corridors in major cities around the country, were responsible for separating themselves, that did not mean there were no rules. Generally in the Hudson, fixed-wing planes stay higher and helicopters lower, and everyone keeps to the right, like on a street, even if there is no line down the middle. "Density doesn't necessarily drive risk," he said. At the F.A.A., Laura J. Brown, a spokeswoman, said that while the space was not controlled, it was "organized," with pilots announcing their location and their intentions on a common radio frequency. But the use of that radio frequency is voluntary. Katharina Rolke, a helicopter pilot and chief of operations for Zip Aviation, which operates on Manhattan's West Side, said the voluntary system was often ignored by plane pilots. "It's very rare they announce themselves," she said. If the corridor were closed to general aviation traffic, Ms. Brown and others said that such planes would have to make wide detours. To go from, say, Hartford to the Jersey Shore would require either flying far out over the water, which is not considered prudent in a single-engine, piston-driven airplane, or swinging around to the west, toward Pennsylvania. Some elected officials said that pilots should be required to file a flight plan. But for small planes, the main function of a flight plan, according to aviation officials, is to let searchers know where to look for wreckage if the plane does not reach its destination. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/nyregion/11collide.html **************** NTSB to probe NYC airspace rules The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday it will begin a review of airspace restrictions in the New York City area following Saturday's fatal midair collision. "If the safety board determines that there are any issues that need to be addressed immediately because of an acute safety concern, we will issue urgent safety recommendations," said Debbie Hersman, who chairs the board, during a news conference. An FAA spokeswoman said that agency is not currently considering new restrictions, and the president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation warned that the air traffic control system would be overloaded with requests if general aviation pilots were required to seek permission to enter the Hudson River corridor. http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aopa/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=CBDB1675-60A4-4 12F-8CF3-F674E7532D5F©id=852FF1A8-73BF-43AA-BCBD-AA6219F798BA **************** Airlines PNG Plane Carrying 13 People Missing, Australia Says Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- An Airlines PNG plane carrying 13 people in Papua New Guinea is missing after failing to arrive at its destination, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. A search is under way for Flight CG4684, which boarded in Port Moresby today, the department said. The Twin Otter turboprop was carrying 11 passengers, including nine Australians, and two crew members, the department said. The Australian High Commission in Port Moresby is liaising with authorities to determine what has happened to the flight and check on the welfare of passengers, according to a statement. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament a search for the plane is under way. The Australian Associated Press reported earlier the plane was carrying Australians to the Kokoda Trail as part of an Adventure Kokoda tour group. The trail is a World War II battle site that is visited by 5,000 Australian tourists each year. No signals are being received from the aircraft's emergency locator beacon, DFAT said, citing the airline. ***** Date: 11-AUG-2009 Time: Type: DHC-6-300 Twin Otter. Operator: Airlines PNG. Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: / Occupants: 13 Airplane damage: mis Location: Near Kokoda. - Papua New Guinea Phase: En route Nature: Passenger Departure airport: Port Moresby. Destination airport: Kokoda. Narrative: Aircraft overdue on a flight to Kokoda From Port Moresby. (aviation-safety.net) **************** NTSB head Debbie Hersman says FAA failed to act on 'scores of recommendations' on shared air space National Transportation Safety Board head Debbie Hersman said her agency sent "scores of recommendations" to the FAA about small planes and tourist helicopters sharing the air space. As divers tried to recover the last two bodies from the Hudson, National Transportation Safety Board head Debbie Hersman said her agency sent "scores of recommendations" to the FAA about small planes and tourist helicopters sharing the air space. The FAA, she charged, has failed to make changes. "We believe if the recommendations were implemented, aviation safety would be improved," the blunt-speaking Hersman said. She said 225 aircraft fly within 3 miles of the crash site every day, and pilots below 1,100 feet are free to choose their routes without monitoring from air-traffic controllers. The FAA did not address Hersman's comments directly, but officials said they will study any recommendations from the NTSB when the investigation is finished. Divers discovered an eighth body from Saturday's tragic crash trapped inside the mangled wreckage of the sunken airplane. The body is stuck in the twisted metal 60 feet under water, police said. Divers tried unsuccessfully to dislodge the body from the crumpled remains. It took investigators two days to find the plane wreckage. Nine people died when a small plane collided with a chopper full of Italian tourists. Police suspended the search for the ninth victim last night until the the Army Corps of Engineers could devise a plan to lift the plane from the water. Recovery workers will use chains and hoists to keep the aircraft intact during the tricky extraction. The wingless airplane is on its side near the center of the river, indicating it drifted from the spot where it crashed off Hoboken, N.J., police said. Treacherous currents and visibility of just 6 inches kept divers out of the water for most of yesterday. The seven other bodies that have been recovered have been positively identified through dental records and fingerprints, police said. Autopsies found all died from blunt-impact injuries. Divers believe the ninth body is in the plane wreckage. Mayor Bloomberg said he trusts the FAA to make decisions about the city's air space, but a band of angry lawmakers went on the offensive and condemned the agency for the lax flying laws over the Hudson. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said an emergency oversight hearing of the Council's Transportation Committee will be held this month in the wake of the tragic crash. "For too long, the FAA has taken a wait-and-see approach when it comes to air traffic over the Hudson," Quinn said. "It's time for the city to review and analyze our policies when it comes to air traffic over our neighborhoods." Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the FAA should act immediately to regulate the city's air space. "For many months, I have been calling for regulation of this air space, and, on Saturday, our worst fears were tragically confirmed once again," said Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn). "It is unconscionable that the FAA permits unregulated flights in a crowded air space in a major metropolitan area. And it is ridiculous that private planes and helicopters flying through a crowded area are dependent, while in flight, on visually sighting other aircraft and communicating with them." FAA officials plan to meet with Nadler to discuss his concerns, a spokeswoman said. The NTSB revealed yesterday the conversation between the plane's pilot, Steven Altman, and Teterboro, N.J., air-traffic controllers before the crash. The controller asked Altman if he wanted to go down the river or southwest. "Either," he answered, and the controller said, "Let me know." "Okay, tell you what," Altman answered back. "I'll take down the river." http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/11/2009-08-11_ntsb_head_debbie_h ersman_says_faa_failed_to_act_on_scores_of_recommendations_on_.html **************** GE Aerospace, FAA, to study how to integrate UAVs into U.S. national air space WASHINGTON, 11 Aug. 2009. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington is joining hands with GE Aviation in Grand Rapids, Mich., to use flight simulation and other research tools to study how to enable manned and unmanned aircraft to share commercial airspace. GE Aviation and the FAA have entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRDA) to assess ways to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the National Airspace System (NAS) -- including using next generation trajectory-based operations. Next generation air traffic control, often referred to as NextGen, will enable commercial aircraft operating under instrument flight rules to fly directly to their destinations, rather than jagged routes along so-called victor airways that use ground-based VHF omni-range (VOR) radio beacons to guide aircraft safely to their destinations. GE Aviation and the FAA will conduct research "to facilitate flight of unmanned aerial systems with an FAA certified, trajectory-based flight management system," says Chris Beaufait, president of avionics for GE Aviation. "Safe integration of UAS into our national air space will include trajectory-based flight management as an enabler. This CRDA directly supports development of the FAA NextGen Air Traffic Management System." Simulations will be conducted at the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center beginning this fall and will continue for two years. GE Aviation's participation will include adapting its FAA certified flight management system to achieve reliable trajectory-based control of unmanned aerial vehicles including demonstration flights of an AAI Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft system in 2009. http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/367574/32/ARTCL/none/EXECW/1/GE-Aeros pace,-FAA,-to-study-how-to-integrate-UAVs-into-US-national-air-space/ ***************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC