Air Crash Investigations - Midair Disaster - Piper and Helicopter Collide Over Hudson River

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 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 National Transportation Safety Board determines that the cause of the accident was the 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, as well as the Teterboro Airport local controller’s nonpertinent telephone conversation, which distracted him from his air traffic control duties. Contributing factors to this accident were both pilots’ ineffective use of available electronic traffic information to maintain awareness of nearby aircraft, and inadequate Federal Aviation Administration procedures.