When a tourist helicopter and single-engine plane collided in mid-air over the Hudson River last Saturday, all of Hoboken stopped and looked skyward.
A soccer coach on the field at Sinatra Park was startled by the overhead blast. Seconds later and close by, wreckage from the collision landed on Sinatra Drive and the Stevens Institute campus at Castle Point.
An off-duty police officer in Church Square Park heard the explosion over the Hudson. He said he knew right away something was wrong.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer was at the grand opening of a new community pool in Union City when a reporter told her what had occurred. She hopped on her bike and was off in seconds.
When she arrived on the waterfront, Office of Emergency Management Coordinator and Police Captain James Fitzsimmons was there in plain clothes. He had been off-duty and out of Hoboken when the crash occurred.
A sunny Saturday on the Hoboken waterfront had just become the site of an official disaster scene.
Before the week was out, nine bodies were pulled from the water and families from Italy to Philadelphia mourned their losses.
How did it happen?
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the federal agency charged with investigating roughly 1,600 aviation accidents per year. They took the lead in the search, rescue, and recovery efforts.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman gave informative updates from the waterfront beginning Saturday and on into the week.
She said on Monday that the NTSB has given “scores of recommendations” to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the federal body providing regulation and oversight for the aviation industry. Many of their recommendations, she said, have not been taken or have not been implemented satisfactorily.
Hersman said records show that low-altitude flights (under 1,100 ft.) are regular occurrences over the Hudson River. At low altitudes, planes are not required to check in with air traffic controllers.
In the week before the crash, she said 225 aircraft per day passed through a 3-mile radius over the river at a low altitude.
Once the agency reviews the facts of the case, they may release an emergency response recommendation. For now they are sorting through the evidence collected and trying to determine what happened.
At her press conference, Hersman recommended small aircraft be equipped with collision avoidance systems. The system tells one pilot to go up and the other to go down in the case of an imminent collision.
The chairman said for aircraft that use the system “almost all mid-air collisions…have been avoided.”
Coordinating the effort
Since the tragedy over Hoboken, the local Office of Emergency Management (OEM) coordinated the multi-agency effort. Fitzsimmons said once he was at the scene of the crash, he organized first responders like the fire department and emergency ambulance corps.
Before the end of the day he would be dealing with representatives from a litany of agencies: NTSB, FAA, FBI Evidence Collection Team, Army Corps of Engineers, N.Y. and N.J. Medical Examiners, Port Authority Police, NYPD and N.J. State Police dive teams, Stevens Police, Jersey City Police, and Hoboken’s police, fire, and department of environmental services.
“We held out hope for as long as we could.” – James Fitzsimmons
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Hours after the search and rescue effort began officials realized they were dealing with a search and recovery.
“As first responders, we held out hope for as long as we could,” Fitzsimmons said.
Hoboken’s OEM has not dealt with any aviation accidents before, Fitzsimmons said, aside from a support role in the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landing on Jan. 15.
“The system is set up so that there are guidelines for bringing people together from various agencies and disciplines,” he said. “I think we responded very well as a city. We come away with a better understanding of how to handle tragedies like this.”
New to this
Zimmer cancelled her family vacation for the weekend once she arrived at the scene of the tragedy. “I thought it was important for me to be on-site,” she said.
“I’m extremely impressed with the fire and police departments and OEM,” the neophyte mayor said in an interview last week.
Zimmer was without the assistance of Angel Alicea, director of public safety, who was away on vacation during the tragedy.
Police Chief Anthony Falco also left on vacation on Sunday, so the new mayor was in “constant communication” with Fitzsimmons and other officials through the days of investigation on the river.
“To me it was okay not to have a public safety director,” she said, noting that she is still weighing whether or not to keep the position active.
She was a little disappointed that she could not better use the city website to communicate to residents, but vowed to have that outlet ready in case of another emergency.
Zimmer spoke before cameras throughout the tragedy, leaving some to wonder whether she was just trying to get her face on television. Not at all, Zimmer said, she was just trying to provide as much information as possible.
“The mayor should be speaking for the city,” she said, noting that her background in crisis management helped her handle the stressful situation.
Other city officials – notably Councilwoman Beth Mason – were also helping out during the emergency.
Mason donated some food and water to rescue workers and worked with local eateries to organize food efforts.
Zimmer will meet with city officials – “key decision makers” – in the near future to access the city’s response.
She said, “This is an example of the community coming together to get this done.”
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.