- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 360
Pilot error?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_hudson_mid_air_collision
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_hudson_mid_air_collision
Small plane, helicopter collide over Hudson River, 8/08/09
- Thread starter CougarKing
- Start date
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
Fate keeps mother, son from fatal flight
Boy's cold feet inadvertently saves their lives
By Marie-Joelle Parent, Sun Media
NEW YORK – Paola Casali and her 13-year-old son were supposed to be on that doomed helicopter. They even had prepaid tickets.
But the visitors from Italy never boarded the sight-seeing helicopter ride Saturday, along with the other Italian tourists. At the last moment, Casali was held back by her son, who was too scared to get on.
“He saved our lives,” she confided to Sun Media, still in a state of shock a few hours after a small private airplane crashed into that helicopter above the Hudson River. Both mangled aircraft plummeted into the river, killing the nine people aboard the aircrafts. A search for bodies was to resume Sunday.
A 42-year-old from Rome, Casali was counting her blessings as she sat on a low wall near the Liberty Harbor Sightseeing Tours Heliport, just off 30th Street on Manhattan Island. This is where the doomed flight took off.
“My son, I don’t know why, he was very scared to take this tour, ” she said. “All morning, he was very jittery. He was procrastinating. He wasted his time at Starbucks, and so we arrived too late. The passengers had already left.”
Casali and her son waited to catch the next ride. With them were relatives of the five Italian tourists who were on the helicopter (whom Casali didn’t know). Soon, rumours about an accident reached them.
“The (relatives) were very worried, but I told them, ‘Don’t worry, it’s very safe, I’ve done it several times,’ ” Casali said.
Then, a flood of police cars, ambulances and firetrucks came streaming by.
“Nobody was telling us what was happening,” Casali said.
Then the horrible news was confirmed.
“Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg arrived, the relatives were taken elsewhere and I didn’t see them again.”
Casali said she previously has gone on these helicopter tours for well-to-do tourists. The small parking lot is always full of luxury cars, she says. The West Manhattan tour lasts 15 minutes, and costs $450 US for two.
“I can’t believe something like this could happen in 2009,” she said.
The crash occurred downriver from the heliport, off 14th Street in Manhattan but closer to the New Jersey shore. On the Manhattan shoreline, a group of friends saw the whole thing. They talked to Sun Media but would not reveal their last names. Jenn, Ernesto, Kaela and Tray were all working at the fishing-pole rental stand on Pier 46 when the tragedy occurred.
They said they heard two loud booms, one after the other – like “very loud fireworks” – then everyone present started running toward the end of the dock. None of them saw any explosions.
The tail of the helicopter was torn off by the impact with the airplane, they said, and the helicopter’s fuselage sank like a rock. In fact the wreckage of both planes sank “in a matter of seconds,” they said. None of it was visible on the surface after impact.
Rescue teams arrived immediately, they said.
The accident happened around noon, as thousands of New Yorkers and tourists were enjoying the sunny weather. New Yorkers kept saying “Again?” to themselves as news of the tragedy spread. Everyone was reminded of the famous forced landing of a U.S. Airways flight in the Hudson River last January, less than one kilometre north of yesterday’s crash site. All 155 passengers survived that incident.
Dozens of emergency vehicles and trucks from the Red Cross invaded the bike trail from 30th Street all the way to the south tip of the island, bringing traffic to a halt on the West Side of the city all afternoon.
Marie-Joelle Parent is Sun Media’s New York City correspondent
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2009/08/08/10403371-sun.html
Boy's cold feet inadvertently saves their lives
By Marie-Joelle Parent, Sun Media
NEW YORK – Paola Casali and her 13-year-old son were supposed to be on that doomed helicopter. They even had prepaid tickets.
But the visitors from Italy never boarded the sight-seeing helicopter ride Saturday, along with the other Italian tourists. At the last moment, Casali was held back by her son, who was too scared to get on.
“He saved our lives,” she confided to Sun Media, still in a state of shock a few hours after a small private airplane crashed into that helicopter above the Hudson River. Both mangled aircraft plummeted into the river, killing the nine people aboard the aircrafts. A search for bodies was to resume Sunday.
A 42-year-old from Rome, Casali was counting her blessings as she sat on a low wall near the Liberty Harbor Sightseeing Tours Heliport, just off 30th Street on Manhattan Island. This is where the doomed flight took off.
“My son, I don’t know why, he was very scared to take this tour, ” she said. “All morning, he was very jittery. He was procrastinating. He wasted his time at Starbucks, and so we arrived too late. The passengers had already left.”
Casali and her son waited to catch the next ride. With them were relatives of the five Italian tourists who were on the helicopter (whom Casali didn’t know). Soon, rumours about an accident reached them.
“The (relatives) were very worried, but I told them, ‘Don’t worry, it’s very safe, I’ve done it several times,’ ” Casali said.
Then, a flood of police cars, ambulances and firetrucks came streaming by.
“Nobody was telling us what was happening,” Casali said.
Then the horrible news was confirmed.
“Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg arrived, the relatives were taken elsewhere and I didn’t see them again.”
Casali said she previously has gone on these helicopter tours for well-to-do tourists. The small parking lot is always full of luxury cars, she says. The West Manhattan tour lasts 15 minutes, and costs $450 US for two.
“I can’t believe something like this could happen in 2009,” she said.
The crash occurred downriver from the heliport, off 14th Street in Manhattan but closer to the New Jersey shore. On the Manhattan shoreline, a group of friends saw the whole thing. They talked to Sun Media but would not reveal their last names. Jenn, Ernesto, Kaela and Tray were all working at the fishing-pole rental stand on Pier 46 when the tragedy occurred.
They said they heard two loud booms, one after the other – like “very loud fireworks” – then everyone present started running toward the end of the dock. None of them saw any explosions.
The tail of the helicopter was torn off by the impact with the airplane, they said, and the helicopter’s fuselage sank like a rock. In fact the wreckage of both planes sank “in a matter of seconds,” they said. None of it was visible on the surface after impact.
Rescue teams arrived immediately, they said.
The accident happened around noon, as thousands of New Yorkers and tourists were enjoying the sunny weather. New Yorkers kept saying “Again?” to themselves as news of the tragedy spread. Everyone was reminded of the famous forced landing of a U.S. Airways flight in the Hudson River last January, less than one kilometre north of yesterday’s crash site. All 155 passengers survived that incident.
Dozens of emergency vehicles and trucks from the Red Cross invaded the bike trail from 30th Street all the way to the south tip of the island, bringing traffic to a halt on the West Side of the city all afternoon.
Marie-Joelle Parent is Sun Media’s New York City correspondent
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2009/08/08/10403371-sun.html
Similar threads
