The NTSB Thursday recommended (among other things) that the FAA create a special flight rules area (with vertical separation for heli and fixed wing traffic) and pilot training specific to what is currently the Hudson River class B exclusion area (a.k.a. VFR corridor). The NTSB issued five operational changes delivered in the form of safety recommendations to the FAA as a result of its ongoing investigation into the midair collision of a Piper PA-32R-300 and a Eurocopter AS350 BA flying in the Hudson River class B exclusion area that killed all nine aboard both aircraft earlier this month. The recommendations come just weeks after the NTSB publicly noted that the FAA had failed to act on “scores of the safety recommendations” the board has previously passed on to the FAA. Aside from the SFRA, the new recommendations ask the FAA to revise ATC procedures for the exclusion area and to brief controllers about the accident and remind them to stay vigilant while on duty.
The NTSB is further recommending that the FAA look at other airspace “where specific pilot training and familiarization would improve safety.”
