Air Traffic Controller Was On Personal Phone Call Before Midair Plane Crash

According to government transcripts, an aircraft controller at New Jersey Teterboro Airport was bantering on the phone with a woman in the airport office, just before the aviation accident that killed 9 people earlier this month.

On August 8th, a private helicopter with tourists on board and a small plane crashed in midair, and both aircraft plunged into the Hudson River. The plane had three members of a family from Pennsylvania, and the helicopter had five Italian tourists and a pilot. All died in the accident.

Now, transcripts show a conversation between an aircraft controller at the New Jersey Airport with the woman, who is believed to have been an employee of Baltimore-based AvPORTS. According to transcripts that have made available to the news media, the personal banter began with one phone call that ended just 12 minutes before the pilot of the Piper airplane told the tower that he was ready to take off. The air traffic controller directed the small plane towards the Hudson River, and then handed off responsibility for the small plane to Newark Airport. The controller then called the woman back. He continued the conservation, which included plenty of talk about a cat that a woman had apparently picked up from airport property. The conservation continued until the controller was contacted by a controller at Newark, who was worried about other aircraft traffic in the path of the small airplane. Seconds later, the controller learnt that the small plane had crashed. The controller has been identified as 38-year-old Carlyle Dwayne Turner.

Last week, both Turner, as well as his supervisor. 55-year-old Dennis Moore were placed on administrative leave by the Federal Aviation Administration. Turner's actions in the minutes before the crash have been the focus of attention. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board said that Turner should have warned the small airplane pilot of the tourist helicopter before he transferred control to a Newark tower. However, since then the agency has clarified, saying that Turner was probably unable to see the helicopter on the radar at this time.

The NTSB also noted that the controller was busy with a personal phone call at the time that alarm signals were going off, warning of an accident. The agency has said that Turner's and air traffic control's role in this accident will be determined by the agency investigation.

Distracted Air Traffic Controllers are a Plane Crash Risk?

As of now, the Federal Aviation Administration believes that there is no reason to suspect that Turner's actions contributed to the crash. There is no evidence to indicate that his personal phone call in any way increased the risk of an accident. The National Air Traffic Controller Association has also defended Turner saying that the controller did everything he was required to do to prevent a collision. However, everybody seems to agree that Turner was amiss in making a personal phone call on the job.

Whatever the results of the investigation into this tragedy, we believe that it has helped place important focus on the risks caused by distracted air traffic controllers.