Death crash controller was chatting on phone

An air traffic controller on duty during last week’s deadly midair collision over New York’s Hudson River was talking on the phone at the time, safety officials said today.

The controller, in charge of supervising the light aircraft that smashed into a helicopter, has been suspended along with their supervisor who, against regulations, was not even in the building when the crash happened.

Three members of a family in the plane and five Italian tourists and a pilot in the helicopter were killed in the collision.

The Federal Aviation Administration said although there was evidence yet that the controllers contributed to the accident, such “conduct is unacceptable.”

Air traffic controllers are expected to be alert at all times while on duty and typically are given about a 15-minute break every two hours for that reason.

The two employees, who were not identified by the FAA, were placed on leave with pay. The FAA said it has begun disciplinary proceedings against them.

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

The controller had cleared the small plane, a single-engine Piper, for takeoff and then made a personal call to a woman, said sources.

While still on the phone, the controller handed off the Piper to the control tower at Newark Liberty International Airport, which monitors low-flying air traffic over the Hudson but does not actively try to keep aircraft separated.

The controller was still on the phone when the accident occurred. The sequence of events lasted only a few minutes.

National Transportation Safety Board and FAA investigators learned of the phone conversation earlier this week while examining recordings of calls on a landline phone in the tower that controllers use to communicate with other parts of the Teterboro Airport. The controller and supervisor were removed from duty immediately.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the 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 practising 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.