ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 67817
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| Date: | Saturday 8 August 2009 |
| Time: | 11:53 |
| Type: |  Eurocopter AS 350BA Ecureuil |
| Owner/operator: | Liberty Helicopters |
| Registration: | N401LH |
| MSN: | 3059 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1997 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6 |
| Other fatalities: | 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Hudson River, near Frank Sinatra Park, Hoboken, NJ -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | New York, NY (JRA) |
| New York, NY (JRA) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On August 8, 2009, at 1153:14 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-32R-300 airplane, N71MC, and a Eurocopter AS350BA helicopter, N401LH, operated by Liberty Helicopters, collided in midair over the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey. The pilot and two passengers aboard the airplane and the pilot and five passengers aboard the helicopter were killed, and both aircraft received substantial damage from the impact. The airplane flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91, and the helicopter flight was operating under the provisions of 14 CFR Parts 135 and 136. No flight plans were filed or were required for either flight, and visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
Probable Cause: (1) the inherent limitations of the see-and-avoid concept, which made it difficult for the airplane pilot to see the helicopter until the final seconds before the collision, and (2) the Teterboro Airport local controller’s nonpertinent telephone conversation, which distracted him from his air traffic control (ATC) duties, including correcting the airplane pilot’s read back of the Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) tower frequency and the timely transfer of communications for the accident airplane to the EWR tower. Contributing to this accident were (1) both pilots’ ineffective use of available information from their aircraft’s electronic traffic advisory system to maintain awareness of nearby aircraft, (2) inadequate Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) procedures for transfer of communications among ATC facilities near the Hudson River Class B exclusion area; and (3) FAA regulations that did not provide adequate vertical separation for aircraft operating in the Hudson River Class B exclusion area.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2010/AAR1005.htm
FAA register: 2. FAA: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=401LH
Location
Images:
Little did I know that three weeks later, this helicopter would be involved in a tragic mid-air collision. I took this picture on July 19, 2009. Copyright, 2009, Daniel L. Berek
Media:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 08-Aug-2009 10:56 | harro | Added |
| 08-Aug-2009 11:02 | harro | Updated |
| 08-Aug-2009 11:56 | harro | Updated |
| 08-Aug-2009 12:20 | RobertMB | Updated |
| 08-Aug-2009 13:54 | RobertMB | Updated |
| 08-Aug-2009 21:58 | harro | Updated |
| 10-Aug-2009 11:46 | harro | Updated |
| 14-Aug-2009 12:26 | harro | Updated |
| 14-Dec-2013 19:19 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative, Photo, ] |
| 25-Jul-2014 23:54 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Location, Nature, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 26-Jul-2014 00:01 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Source] |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:25 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 22-Apr-2017 11:18 | Iceman 29 | Updated [Source] |
| 02-Dec-2017 15:59 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 12-Mar-2018 20:57 | Aerossurance | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Nature, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 16-Feb-2020 13:15 | harro | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Source, Narrative, Accident report, ] |
| 07-Sep-2021 17:37 | Anon. | Updated [Category] |
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