The Federal Aviation Administration should monitor all planes and helicopters flying below 1,100 feet in the airspace over the Hudson River, Sen. Chuck Schumer said yesterday.
Announcing a plan to prevent a repeat of the midair collision that killed nine people on Aug. 8, Schumer said both types of aircraft should be required to file flight plans.
“Maybe in the middle of Idaho you don’t need a flight plan, but I think that in New York City you do,” he said.
At present, controllers do not monitor planes and choppers in the air corridor, forcing pilots to announce their positions on a common radio frequency and to watch out the window for approaching traffic.
Schumer also called on Congress to approve funding for NextGen satellite technology, which can be used to pinpoint the position of aircraft in the corridor’s lower altitudes.
He also said there should be more staffing at local control towers, and he called for the installation of alarm systems that set off progressively louder alarms as aircraft get closer to each other.
Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, recommended that planes and helicopters fly at different altitudes in the Hudson air corridor, with planes flying higher than copters.