Collision Probe Encounters More Trouble as Agencies Feud

A public squabble between federal accident investigators and the national air-traffic controllers union escalated Monday, threatening to complicate the probe of the fatal midair collision between a sightseeing helicopter and a small plane over the Hudson River along Manhattan.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is in charge of the high-profile investigation, took the unusual step of kicking all controllers off the industry-government group gathering facts about what led to the Aug. 8 crash. Nine people died in the accident.The move was prompted by a Friday news conference and subsequent public statements in which leaders of the controllers' union repeatedly challenged the accuracy of the safety board's chronology of events, which was released last week.

Though the NTSB now seemingly agrees with some of the arguments made by the union representing the controllers -- and changed its account Monday on one important point -- the head of the safety board nonetheless criticized controllers for going public with their complaints.

The dispute focuses on whether a controller at the Teterboro, N.J., airport -- who has been suspended and faces disciplinary action for engaging in a personal conversation at the time of the crash -- had information soon enough to have helped the pilot of the single-engine propeller plane avoid a potential traffic conflict with the sightseeing helicopter.

A supervisor in the Teterboro tower also has been suspended and faces discipline for failing to be at his post when the crash happened.

The safety board reiterated Monday that the controller began the personal call on an official Federal Aviation Administration phone shortly after the plane took off from Teterboro, stayed on it for nearly three minutes, and failed to alert the plane's pilot about a number of aircraft that posed potential hazards in his path.

According to the board's statement Monday, the controller, who hasn't been identified, couldn't see the helicopter on his radar scope until he was in the process of switching the plane's pilot to another frequency used by other controllers. The Teterboro controller continued the phone call until a second before the collision, according to the preliminary timeline. In the interim, a controller from another facility called the Teterboro to warn about a potential collision unless the plane was ordered to change course. The plane's pilot apparently never heard the warning.

On Friday, the safety board said the helicopter was one of the aircraft that initially showed up on the Teterboro controller's radar screen. Under the union's version of events, which the board initially disputed, the Teterboro controller couldn't have alerted the plane's pilot about the helicopter because of the lag in radar coverage.

The board's revised chronology indicates that the helicopter first popped up on Teterboro's radar about 47 seconds prior to the accident. The Teterboro controller made two unsuccessful efforts to reach the plane's pilot. link......