FAA Places 2 on Leave after Hudson Crash

(AP)  Last updated at 10:17 p.m. EDT

Authorities have removed from duty an air traffic controller who they say was talking on the phone during last week's deadly midair collision over New York's Hudson River, along with a supervisor who was out of the building at the time.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that while there was no reason to believe thus far that the employees' actions contributed to the accident, which killed nine people, such "conduct is unacceptable." Air traffic controllers are expected to be alert at all times while on duty and are given regular breaks, sometimes hourly, for that reason.

The two employees, who were not identified by the FAA, were placed on administrative leave with pay. The FAA said it has begun disciplinary proceedings against the controller, who was handling the small plane that collided with a tour helicopter, and against the supervisor on duty at the time. Three members of a Pennsylvania family on the plane and five Italian tourists and a pilot on the helicopter were killed when the two stricken aircraft plunged into the river.

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

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the labor union representing controllers, said in a statement that it supports a full investigation of the allegations "before there is a rush to judgment."

The FAA's action came as an amateur video surfaced that captured the moment of impact between the two aircraft. The images, taken by an Italian man practicing with a new camera while on a boat tour, shows the helicopter flying overhead when suddenly a single-engine plane appears behind it, apparently climbing and turning. The plane clips the helicopter's rotor blades, and a wing shears off. Debris rains down, and the plane flips. Both aircraft plunge toward the water.

On the video, aired Thursday on "NBC Nightly News," one or more onlookers can be heard in the background saying, "Oh, my God!"

Teterboro Airport, located directly across the Hudson River from New York City near the George Washington Bridge, handles corporate and private aircraft.

It is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and handles nearly 200,000 flights a year.

[Yes_ABWH_Fan]

If there was even a 1% change that the Teterboro controllers might have noticed the situation developing, & done something about it, then the FAA is correct to fire them. "Seeing and going beyond exact responsibility" - above the call of duty - is standard fare for most people's jobs - in theirs, failure to do so can costs lives.

[edgy44]

The trouble with most of the aviation industry, is that a vo-tech diploma is all you need. Like the military, you need to find a few good commissioned officers to supervise the system. We will never get to the Free Flight goal, if all the vehicles aren't participating in Mode-S. We need to mandate Mode-S (use the Transportation funds), and mandate TCAS in all for-hire commercial aircraft. You can't have Free Flight with renegades zipping through dense airspace.

[edgy44]

They need to redesign the airspace. They also need to make TCAS and Mode-S mandatory for all commercial aircraft carrying more than one passenger. No TCAS/Mode-S, then insurance should be unaffordable.

[Destrian]

What a joke... The teterboro control zone Does NOT extend over the Hudson at that point, the space is VFR which is see AND avoid, controllers in the New York TRACON are very much on the phone with other facilities at all times, and frankly, the FAA is wrong here. In the Lexington crash, they exonerated, quite frankly, a controller who was at fault for the crash by not looking out the window to simply see that he just issued a clearance to an aircraft lined up on the wrong runway: here, they suspend a tower controller for doing something they do every few minutes for an accident that happened outside his airspace, which he can't even see from the tower cab. Meanwhile the FAA blithely tip-toes past the several NTSB recommendations to regulate that airspace. It's money and bodies again for the FAA... What a joke. Acting stupid to try to look good. Another win for the FAA!

[zonkzilla]

I saw the excellent video of the aircraft and the collision.
There is no excuse for either pilot not seeing the other aircraft due to the angle of their collision, altitude, weather conditions, and speed.
They didn't even collide head on, they hit at an angle.
It was a perfect clear day for flying.
Apparently neither pilot was looking out for other aircraft or paying attention and instead were sightseeing and giving tours of the city.
A 90 year old man without his glasses could have avoided that accident.
The controller is not to blame, both pilots caused this accident.
Now if one of the pilots was in fact blind, than of course that pilot has no responsibility but normally people who have no eyesight are not allowed to fly aircraft.
My conclusion based on the video is pilot error by both pilots in that they failed to properly scan the area for other aircraft. I have little doubt the NTSB will come to the same conclusion.
I have flown aircraft and I have investigated crashes as a safety officer, so don't even do there.

[WayAround]

"A DHL cargo plane and a Russian passenger jet collided in Swiss-controlled airspace over southern Germany on July 1, 2002"

"one of two crucial controllers had taken a break at the time of a midair crash that killed 71 people"

The remaining "lone air traffic controller missed a key warning on his radar screen"

How convenient.

[payasyougo]

Scapegoats.

Must be a Democratic administration.

VFR means Visual Flight Rules. See and avoid. The pilot of the small plane gets full creidt for this tragic incident. No rear view mirrors on a helicopter.

[bradkt1]

That's why their actions probably weren't the cause of the accident. However, there is no excuse for a controller to be talking on the telephone when he/she has aircraft under his/her control...or for a supervisor who is supposed to be on duty not being in the building and performing his/her duties. This conduct is unacceptable and warrants the imposition of major disciplinary actions. These are safety-related jobs and this is not the sort of thing that you can correct with re-trainig. Controllers know better than this.

[CPelzar]

How about firing someone, 9 people died. Let this be a lesson, when you work for the Government you do not get fired.