http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/08/hudson.helicopter.crash/index.html Additionally... CNN is saying there was a child on board on one of the vehicles.... and Mayor Bloomberg said this is now "a Recovery mission instead of a Rescue mission" and he said this accident looks like it has no survivors. RIP to the victims...
I was listening to an interview and someone stated that he saw near misses everyday and that this crash didn't surprise him. Someone needs to rework the tourist helicopter system to prevent this from happening!
as a former resident of downtown manhattan, there are tons of helicopter tours along the river (we hate them because they are noisy). i'm going to guess that it was the airplane's fault because the helicopter traffic is pretty standardized.
I fly a Piper aircraft very similar to the type involved in this tragedy. The #1 responsibility for a pilot in VFR conditions is "see and avoid". It sounds to me like the pilot of the Piper may have been at fault for that very reason. It's very likely that he missed the helicoptor altogether.
