By Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Nearly two months have passed since the terrible crash of a single-engine plane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River. That shocking accident catalyzed New Yorkers and others into demanding improved safety in our congested and dangerous air corridor, and it dramatically vindicated my longstanding calls on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide better regulation.
The August crash was the result of an irresponsible lack of oversight over airspace that is used by hundreds of helicopters and small planes every day. This tragedy could have been prevented.
For at least 10 years, I have said that the practically non-existent regulations on the Hudson corridor below 1,100 feet are an accident waiting to happen, to say nothing of the daily nuisance caused by low-flying helicopters for residents of the city. Needless to say, I have been underwhelmed by the FAA’s sluggish response to this still-looming problem.
Recently, we made progress when the FAA finally acknowledged—after years of denial—that it does have authority to regulate this airspace. And on Sept. 2, in response to the demands of elected officials, the public and the media, the FAA took an important step forward and proposed a series of new safety recommendations for dense air corridors. But those recommendations simply do not go far enough in improving the safety of our airspace, and I am still concerned that we are putting pilots and the public at risk for future incidents. We must go much further.
The FAA’s proposed measures still rely on the “see-and-avoid” practice, in which pilots use their own vision as the primary method of tracking other aircraft. This is simply unacceptable given the intricacies of navigating narrow airspace and the obvious dangers demonstrated by the August crash.
As I formally requested of the FAA directly following the recent crash, helicopters and general aviation aircraft should be required to file flight plans, even for trips under 1,100 feet. What’s more, we should seriously consider banning all flights below 1,100 feet until we have radar systems in place that can reliably track them.
And, while the FAA has suggested voluntary training for pilots of our congested air corridor, such training must be absolutely mandatory if we are to ensure safety.
At a Sept. 16 hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee on the Hudson River airspace, it became clear that the FAA had not invested the time and resources necessary to sufficiently study the safety issues of dense air corridors and was still not committed to addressing the problem. I was not satisfied by the
FAA’s answers to questions my colleagues and I posed. And I will continue to push the FAA to limit the number of allowable flights, basing our numbers on what we know to be safe levels in busy airspace.
It should be noted that the Hudson River airspace is not the only flight corridor in the country where accidents have occurred because of under-regulation. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General, there were 33 accidents and 109 fatalities across the country involving on-demand aircraft in 2007 and 2008. And the enforcement of regulations is no inaugural act: after a series of crashes in 1994, the FAA stepped in to regulate helicopter tours in Hawaii.
We must act now and be confident that we are doing everything in our power to prevent further accidents. If the FAA cannot ensure the safety of pilots, passengers and bystanders, then perhaps our airspace is not yet fit for helicopters and small aircraft.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
