My World Earth News: midair collision

Showing posts with label midair collision. Show all posts

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Calif. searchers seek survivors after air crash-Midair crash betw CoastGuard aircraft and Marine Helicopter

U.S. Coast Guard officers Lt. Josh Nelson, left, Capt. Tom Farris, center, and Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, right, arrive to speak at a news conference held at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

U.S. Coast Guard divers board a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows a Coast Guard aircrew member from Sector San Diego conducting search patterns east of San Clemente Island Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 to search for survivors of a mid-air collision that occurred Thursday. The collision occurred between a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules and a Marine AH-1 Super Cobra

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, left, speaks at a news conference as Marine Corps Maj. Jay DeLaRosa, right, looks on at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter lifts off at the San Diego Coast Guard Station during a search effort Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, in San Diego.A Marine attack helicopter that collided with a Coast Guard search plane off Southern California was one of four helicopters flying in formation to deliver Marines to a training island. All nine crew members from the airplane and helicopter remain missing Friday.

U.S. Marine Corps Major Jay DeLaRosa talks about the search effort during a news conference held at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

U.S. Coast Guard pilots taxi in a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter before taking off during a search mission at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

U.S. Coast Guard pilots prepare a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter before taking off on a search mission at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

A U.S. Coast Guardsman boards a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

The U.S. Coast Guard has identified nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.

The missing crew members from the Coast Guard C-130 are all stationed in Sacramento, Calif., where their aircraft was based. They are:

_ Lt. Cmdr. Che J. Barnes, 35, Capay, Calif., aircraft commander.

_ Lt. Adam W. Bryant, 28, Crewe, Va., co-pilot.

_ Chief Petty Officer John F. Seidman, 43, Stockton, Calif., flight engineer.

_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl P. Grigonis, 35, Mayfield Heights, Ohio, navigator.

_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Monica L. Beacham, 29, Decaturville, Tenn., radio operator.

_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason S. Moletzsky, 26, Norristown, Pa., air crew.

_ Petty Officer 3rd Class Danny R. Kreder II, 22, Elm Mott, Texas, drop master.

The missing crew members from the Marine Corps helicopter are:

_ Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, Kennebec, Maine.

_ 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, 26, Douglas, Colo.

A flotilla of rescue vessels continued its search Saturday for nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.

Six Coast Guard cutters, three Navy ships and multiple helicopters searched the ocean off Southern California. Rescuers had found several pieces of debris from both aircraft but there was no sign of the victims. No bodies have been found in the debris field, and the mission is still considered search and rescue, not search and recovery, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta Disco said Saturday morning.

Thursday's crash involved a Coast Guard C-130 with a seven-member crew and a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra with two aboard as it flew in formation near the Navy's San Clemente Island, a site with training ranges for amphibious, air, surface and undersea warfare.

The collision occurred as the Coast Guard airplane was itself carrying out a search for a missing boatman.

Officials were collecting evidence and reviewing recordings of transmissions by the aircraft to try to determine how the collision occurred.

The Coast Guard on Saturday identified the nine missing crew members. All seven aboard the Coast Guard plane are stationed at the Coast Guard Air Station in Sacramento, Calif., where their aircraft was based.

Connie Seidman of Carmichael, Calif., whose 43-year-old son was aboard the plane, said he had been in the Coast Guard since he was 20 and loved to fly. Chief Petty Officer John Seidman of Stockton, Calif., last visited his family in February after returning from a posting in Hawaii, and they talked on the phone often.

Seidman said Saturday she was thinking about "all the things that we wanted to tell him that we can't."

"He was flying, just like he liked to," she said.

The aircraft commander, Lt. Cmdr. Che Barnes, 35, is from Capay, Calif. His co-pilot, Lt. Adam Bryant, 28, is from Crewe, Va.

The missing crew members from the Marine helicopter are Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, of Kennebec, Maine, and 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, 26, of Douglas, Colo.

The accident happened at 7:10 p.m. in airspace uncontrolled by the FAA and inside a so-called military warning area, which is at times open to civilian aircraft and at times closed for military use, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. He did not know the status of the airspace at the time.

Capt. Tom Farris, commander of the Coast Guard's San Diego sector, said it's not unusual to have a high volume of military traffic working in training areas and pilots in the area are responsible for seeing other aircraft around them under a so-called "see-and-avoid principle."

Minutes before the collision, the FAA told the C-130 pilot to begin communicating with military controllers at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Bay, but it was not known if the pilot did so, Gregor said.

The search covered 644 square miles of ocean but rescuers were concentrating on a debris field 50 miles off the San Diego coast.

The Sacramento-based C-130 crew was looking for 50-year-old David Jines, who was reported missing after leaving Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island man in a 12-foot motorized skiff to reach a friend in high winds Tuesday, authorities said.

The four-engine plane was conducting its search from an altitude of 900 to 1,000 feet and visibility was 15 miles.

Jines' friend, Linda Jones, told The Associated Press that Jines boarded her disabled yacht and helped her maneuver to an area where they thought they had made anchor. After helping her, he set off to return to his sailboat, which was anchored at the Avalon harbor.

She reported Jines missing the next day when she returned to the harbor and couldn't find him.

"I didn't know Dave was in any kind of peril," she said.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Search underway for survivors of military aircraft collision off Southern California coast- Coast Guard: Navy chopper crashes off Calif. coast

Coast Guard C-130 transport alleged to have collided with a marine Cobra attack helicopter. Believed to have 7 people on board.

The AH-1 Cobra helicopter is the same type of attack helicopter that reportedly collided with a Coast Guard C130 transport plane off San Clemente Island. Cobra believed to have 2 pilot.

Jayhawk H-60 helicopter Coast Guard rescue helicopter searching for survivors and missing planes.

Navy T-34 training aircraft. Search began when the T-34 were reported to be missing.

The Coast Guard confirmed to reporters in San Diego tonight that a crash occurred between two aircraft -- possibly a Coast Guard C-130 transport airplane and a Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter -- and said that rescue crews have spotted debris in the water.

Rescue units from the Coast Guard and Navy have responded to the crash site to search for survivors. The airplane was reported to contain seven crew members, while the helicopter contained two. No survivors have yet been spotted. Three Coast Guard cutters and four Navy ships, along with several helicopters, are involved in the search.

A Coast Guard spokesman said that search conditions were good with calm waters and light winds. The spokesman described the aircraft as a Coast Guard airplane and a Department of Defense aircraft. Federal Aviation Administration officials have identified the aircraft as a C-130 and a Cobra helicopter.

The collision is thought to have occurred 15 to 25 miles off San Clemente Island, the FAA said.

Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said that a pilot reported seeing a fireball about 7:10 p.m. near the suspected crash site. Earlier reports stated that a single Navy helicopter may have crashed.

The Coast Guard says an overnight search yielded no sign of a Navy plane and two pilots who failed to return from a flight.

Petty Officer Randy Hale told The Associated Press early Thursday that search aircraft were out all night and "we haven't been able to find anything as of yet."

The search began Wednesday afternoon for the crew of a Navy T-34 training aircraft after an air traffic controller at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas lost contact with the pair.

The single-engine trainer's last known location was near San Jose Island, east of Rockport and 2 miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico.

As many as nine people were believed to be missing after a Coast Guard plane collided with a military helicopter off the Southern California coast Thursday, officials said.

The crash was reported at 7:10 p.m., about 15 miles east off San Clemente Island, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Allyson Conroy said.

A pilot reported seeing a fireball in the vicinity of the suspected crash site, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

Gregor said preliminary information indicated the crash was between a Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra and a Coast Guard C-130 transport plane.

There were seven people on board the C-130 and two on the chopper, Gregor said.

Marine Corps spokesman Cpl. Michael Stevens confirmed an AH-1 Cobra had crashed. He had no additional details.

A search and rescue mission was underway.

San Clemente Island, the southernmost of the eight Channel Islands, is 68 miles west of San Diego.

A Navy helicopter has collided mid-air with a Coast Guard transport plane, leaving a reported 9 people missing, according to the FAA. A search and rescue operation is underway.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says a Coast Guard C130 transport plane is believed to have collided midair with a Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra helicopter at 7:10 p.m., approximately 25 miles east of San Clemente Island.

A pilot reported seeing a fireball in the vicinity of the suspected crash site.

The Coast Guard cannot account for a C130 and the Marine Corps cannot account for a Cobra, Gregor said.

The Coast Guard sent a Jayhawk H-60 helicopter to assist in the search for the downed aircraft, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Henry Dunphy said.

There were reportedly seven people aboard the C130 and two aboard the AH-1 Cobra.

Originally reported by the Coast Guard as a possible helicopter down, the crash has since been classified as a collision by the FAA.

The pilots were not talking to FAA air traffic controllers at the time of the collision, Gregor said.

Three Coast Guard cutters and four Navy ships, along with several helicopters have been dispatched to the suspected crash site and will search throughout the night to find any possible survivors, said Lieutenant Josh Nelson of the Coast Guard in a press conference.

Officials are calling search conditions in the area "ideal," with calm waters, light winds, and no cloud cover.

Search crews have reportedly found debris in the water, but have not located any survivors, according to Nelson.

Officials could not comment on where the aircrafts originated or what sorts of missions they were conducting.

San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the Channel Islands off California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County.
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Friday, August 14, 2009

two air traffic employees suspended for talking Hp when on duty.

Federal officials on Thursday suspended two air traffic employees at Teterboro Airport who had been overseeing the Piper plane that collided with a helicopter over the Hudson River on Saturday, killing nine people.

One of the employees was the air traffic controller who handled the flight but was on the phone “involved in apparently inappropriate conversations” at the time of the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The second was the traffic controller’s supervisor, who was supposed to be present but was out of the building at the time, the agency said.

The agency said, however, that it did not believe the employees’ behavior had any role in the collision.

“While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident,” the F.A.A. said, “this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings.”

Federal officials did not identify the employees, but a report in The Daily News said that the traffic controller had been on the phone with his companion. Citing an unnamed senior agency official, the newspaper said that the controller had been in radio contact with the Piper — while speaking to his companion on a separate line — and that he had given the pilot the correct radio frequency for Newark Liberty International Airport and handed him off to controllers at that tower, as required.

But according to investigators, the pilot never contacted Newark. It was unclear why the controllers did not hear from him.

Moments later, just before noon, the small plane collided in midair with a New York tourist helicopter and plunged into the Hudson River off Hoboken, N.J. All on board the two aircraft — three in the plane and six in the helicopter — were killed.

In its statement on Thursday, the F.A.A. said that it was still trying to determine the cause of the accident.

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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Nine die in New York air crash over Hudson River NY.Read Witness Accounts.

Image above show rescuer pulling up corpses from Hudson River.Believed upto 9 may have dead from the mid air collisions.

Rescue looking for debris , survivors and corpses.

Fox show the footing of the occurs.The plane hit the back of the helicopter.

Map above show the location of the midair accidents.

Police and emergency crews continued their search for wreckage and bodies in the Hudson River a day after a small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter carrying a group of Italian tourists, apparently killing nine people.

Fox News Channel

A plane and helicopter crashed above the Hudson River today, sending debris into the river and onto the Hoboken, N.J., waterfront.

Based on preliminary eyewitness reports of the low-altitude crash, which occurred in good weather, officials said the single-engine propeller plane apparently smashed into the rear of the helicopter as the two aircraft were flying in the same direction, scattering debris in the river and on the New Jersey waterfront. The accident took place in a narrow corridor over the river reserved for general aviation and other aircraft operating under visual flight rules -- and no requirement to communicate with air-traffic controllers.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the crash as "not survivable.'' Three bodies and helicopter wreckage were recovered before search efforts were halted for the night Saturday. Three hours after the crash, which took place around noon, the National Transportation Safety Board was on scene to direct the investigation. Investigators resumed their search at daybreak Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

Six people were on board the helicopter which plummeted into the river. Three people were believed to have been travelling in the plane

Cause of Accident

Mayor Bloomberg emphasized during a news conference that both aircraft were flying under so-called "see and avoid" rules that don't require monitoring by controllers despite the surrounding busy airspace and several major airports in the vicinity. "This could have happened over a cornfield as well as the Hudson River," he said.

Commercial and private jets are restricted from flying at such low altitudes. They follow takeoff and approach routes to metropolitan airports that take them well above the visual-flight corridor over the Hudson.

Hudson River corridor is a popular shortcut for northbound and southbound flights to and from New England. "It's scenic too," which helps make the fly zone a busy area. Complicating matters, while airplanes must fly along the river, helicopters, which aren't bound by the same rules, might cross it.

Helicopter pilots and others who frequently fly the Hudson sightseeing route—which keeps them under 1,000 feet--rely on special procedures, including broadcasting on and monitoring a dedicated radio frequency designed to make pilots aware of nearby traffic. Such transmissions are recommended but aren't required. It isn't clear whether the small plane's pilot was using the special frequency.

Witness Accounts

Witnesses to the crash described how debris from the two aircraft disappeared within seconds beneath the water's surface, and rescue workers soon determined that there were no survivors, officials said.

According to eye-witness reports, it appeared that the helicopter had just taken off from a mid-town helipad and turned south down the river when the plane smashed into it, shearing off a rotor. Both aircraft shed debris as they plummeted into the water.

There were unconfirmed reports that the plane may have lost part of a wing just before the smash. It had taken off from Teterboro, a private airport in New Jersey, a few minutes earlier

"It would appear that the airplane ran into the backside of the helicopter," Bloomberg(New York Mayor) said, saying the precise cause of the collision may not be known for days or weeks, pending an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The helicopter belonged to Liberty Harbour Sightseeing Tours which runs popular aerial tours of major New York landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty. The weather conditions were clear and calm at the time of the crash just before midday.

The Hoboken all-stars girls soccer team was in the middle of practice on Saturday when the goalie looked up and saw two aircraft flying into each other in the clear skies overhead.\

-Youth soccer coach Leo Pellegrini, orange shirt, is surrounded by reporters as he recounts his views the horrifying crash.-

"There was a big cracking sound and the propeller from the helicopter flew off and the plane's wing broke off," 12-year-old Marina Wardell said.

"The plane was swirling and landed a little bit aways. The helicopter went head first and plunged into the water.

"Then, like five seconds later, it sunk. It was like it was from a movie! It was shocking to see it actually happening."

For a moment, the dozen girls scattered across Sinatra Soccer Field cowered, fearing they were going to be hit by debris.

Then, when it was clear they were safe, they ran over to the fence along the river and pressed up against it, craning to see if anyone survived.

"I just saw the pieces floating around. It happened really fast. I didn't see anyone," Marina said.
On the other side of the sparkling, crowded river, Jahangir Alam was selling empanadas and sodas at a Hudson River Park refreshment stand.

"The plane and the helicopter were flying at each other and they turned away not to crash. But the plane hit the back of the helicopter," said Alam, 49, a Bangladeshi immigrant who lives in Queens.

"My first thought was, 'someone save the people.'"

At a cafe on Little W. 12th St., Alanna Duffy, 29, saw huge chunks of mangled aircraft falling across the sky.

"I just saw the propeller twisting through the air," she said. "The body was doing a nosedive. It went right in the water."

Retired machinist Gabriel Stise, 78, was eating lunch on a shady riverside bench in Hoboken when the plane went over his head.

"It didn't sound right. It was loud. It was very low," he said.

"It came down and just sank. I didn't see anyone in the water. They must have gone down with it. There's so much room up there. How could this happen?"

Nearby, Hilda Igartua, 53, sat in her wheelchair talking on the phone as her husband, Angel Vacqez, 50, fished happily.

"I saw the plane hit the helicopter," she said.

"The helicopter went spinning down, breaking into pieces. I saw debris falling everywhere. My husband got scared and pushed me back. He was screaming."

"It sounded like putting a fork in a blender, but louder, like fireworks," said Grendaly Torres, who was helping her mother sell jewelry in the park.

Past Accidents

In October 2006, a private plane that took off from Teterboro ended up flying into a high-rise apartment building along Manhattan's East River. New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed in the crash and it seriously injured one person on the ground. In the wake of that accident, authorities restricted private planes from flying certain routes over the East River.

Seven months ago, the same river was the scene of a spectacular aircraft accident that resulted in no loss of life. In January, a US Airways flight taking off from LaGuardia Airport slammed into a flock of birds and lost power in both engines. The plane crash-landed in the Hudson River, roughly half a mile from Saturday's crash, and all 155 people on board were pulled to safety.

Two years ago, a Liberty helicopter fell 500 feet from the sky into the same river during a sightseeing trip. The pilot was credited with safely landing the chopper on the water and helping evacuate her seven passengers.

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--NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Statement On Helicopter & Small Plane [Piper PA-32] Crash Over New York City's Hudson River --

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Calif. searchers seek survivors after air crash-Midair crash betw CoastGuard aircraft and Marine Helicopter

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Search underway for survivors of military aircraft collision off Southern California coast- Coast Guard: Navy chopper crashes off Calif. coast

Friday, August 14, 2009

two air traffic employees suspended for talking Hp when on duty.

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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Nine die in New York air crash over Hudson River NY.Read Witness Accounts.

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