FAA offers new Hudson River corridor rules

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration said it would issue new rules on how aircraft operate in the overcrowded air corridor above the Hudson River in New York.

The agency said Wednesday it also would develop new training programs for pilots, air traffic controllers and tourist helicopter operators using the corridor, The New York Times reported Thursday.

"These steps will significantly enhance safety in this busy area and create crystal-clear rules for all of the pilots who operate there," FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt said in a statement.

The FAA said it would set limits on how fast aircraft may fly and would require pilots in the airspace to use the same radio channel, both of which now are voluntary, the Times reported.

A special panel recommended the changes following the Aug. 8 midair collision of a single-engine plane and a touring helicopter over the Hudson in which nine people died.

The FAA expects to have all the changes in place by Nov. 19, agency spokeswoman Laura J. Brown said.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who represents the Manhattan's West Side, said the FAA's proposed changes were "fundamentally inadequate."

Also expressing disappointment was Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who said, "The FAA took a first step, but more has to be done."

An aide to Nadler said he and other lawmakers from New York and New Jersey submitted a number of ideas that they said the FAA ignored, the Times reported. A key proposal the lawmakers offered was a requirement that all planes flying in the corridor have a cockpit device that warns when another aircraft is too close, the aide said.