Shock Over NYC Fly-Zone Rules

A day after the fiery plane crash that killed Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, politicians expressed shock that, five years after Sept. 11, small aircraft are still allowed to fly right up next to the New York skyline.

"I think everyone is scratching their head, wondering how it is possible that an aircraft can be buzzing around Manhattan," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who has been lobbying for rule changes since 2004. "It's virtually the Wild West. There is no regulation at all, other than `Don't run into anything."'

The single-engine plane that carried Lidle to his death was flying over the East River, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens and is lined on the Manhattan side by the United Nations and scores of skyscrapers.

It is one of the city's busiest and most popular routes for sightseeing pilots, traffic helicopters and executives hopping from one business deal to the next, and it is largely unmonitored, as long as the aircraft stay below 1,100 feet.

Lawmakers have tried for years to close the corridor for reasons of safety and security.

To demonstrate how restricted airspace is in the Washington D.C.-area,
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr and pilot Phil Boyer took off from a small airport in Fredericksburg, Va.. and headed toward the nation's capital.

Forty miles from the White House, with no sign of the city in sight, Orr and Boyer ran up against the "security wall" in the sky, illustrated by a white line on a cockpit gauge.

Had the two crossed this invisible line, they would see a military helicopter or an F-15 jet, according to Boyer, who heads the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

The current restrictions, posted at the start of the Iraq war, have installed overlapping no-fly bubbles around Washington and Baltimore. No other city is so off-limits to private pilots, Orr reports.

New York Gov. George Pataki said Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration "needs to take a much tougher line" about private, or general aviation, flights over New York City.

However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a recreational pilot with decades of experience, said he believes the skies are safe under the current rules.

"We have very few accidents for an awful lot of traffic," he said. "Every time you have an automobile accident, you're not going to go and close the streets or prohibit people from driving."

Pilots like Boyer argue the threat presented by a private plane, even one packed with explosives, is small.

"I see small airplanes as causing the same kind of threat that a car could cause, a small truck could cause, a van could cause," says Boyer, who heads the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

All flights over New York were grounded after Sept. 11, but the restrictions were lifted three months later.

Much of the airspace over the two main rivers that encircle Manhattan — the East River and the Hudson River — is unrestricted for small aircraft flying under 1,100 feet. Planes and helicopters beneath that ceiling do not have to file a flight plan or check in with air traffic controllers, as long as they do not stray from the sky over the rivers.

General aviation aircraft are allowed to go about as far north as Manhattan's 96th Street. There, they must either execute a U-turn to avoid the restricted airspace around LaGuardia Airport, or get permission from air traffic control to climb higher and continue north, or turn west over Central Park.

Lidle's plane slammed into the 39th, 40th and 41st floors of a luxury apartment building overlooking the East River, just a short distance from that turnaround point. Radar data indicated that the plane had begun a left turn, a quarter-mile north of the building, just before the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The 1,100-foot ceiling is not necessarily high enough for an off-course pilot to clear some of Manhattan's skyscrapers: The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet; the Chrysler Building 1,046 feet, the Citicorp building 915 feet.

Lidle had his pilot's license for less than eight months — 88 hours behind the controls of his four-seater Cirrus CR-20. He and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, were both from California and that lack of local knowledge, say New York area pilots may have contributed to their crash.

"I would consider this a very dangerous activity to do for a rookie pilot," flight instructor Stephen Cohen tells CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts during a helicopter ride around Manhattan.

From the air, the Hudson River, where the Lidle and Stanger started their trip, looks like a canyon and the East River, a creek, Pitts says. Traveling under 1,000 feet down this narrow passageway was tricky at best, Cohen says.

"The purpose of the flight is to be an enjoyable sightseeing flight. Below 1,100 feet you have helicopters, sea planes, traffic everywhere. It's not fun," Cohen says.

Crash investigators are looking at the possibility Lidle's plane may have stalled just before impact. Lidle was in a steep left turn and the last recorded ground speed of the plane was 112 mph, sources tell CBS News.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for tighter rules, including a permanent closing of the Hudson River approach to the city and a requirement that low-flying aircraft submit a flight plan before entering New York airspace.

Weiner said all pilots flying near Manhattan should be required to be under the supervision of air traffic controllers. Most low-altitude flights over the island itself should be banned entirely, he said.

Unnerved residents of the apartment building struck by Lidle's plane also complained about the proximity of aircraft to tall city buildings.

"I feel like I can see the pilot at times, it's that close," said Lillian Snower Beacham, who lives on the 36th floor of the Belaire.

Federal aviation accident records list relatively few general aviation accidents near Manhattan, considering the large numbers of craft flying.

Two helicopters rolled into the East River last year immediately after takeoff, causing injuries, but no deaths. There were fatal helicopter crashes in 1997 and 1990. Passengers escaped unhurt when a Cessna dove into the Hudson in 1988. Four people died when a seaplane and police helicopter collided over the East River in 1983.