Pilot's Perspective: The Crash of a Yankee

Popular Mechanics Website ^ | 10/10/06 | Jeff Wise

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Flying the same deadly route that brought Cory Lidle barreling into a New York City apartment building this week, our private pilot traverses the tragedy—and predicts its aftermath—in a PopularMechanics.com exclusive.

PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 12, 2006 — When I was a newly minted private pilot like Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, I did the same thing that he did: I hired an instructor to show me how to fly the Hudson VFR corridor—a flyway of unrestricted airspace that follows the western edge of Manhattan along the Hudson River. (VFR stands for “visual flight rules,” which means the only things keeping you out of trouble are your own eyeballs.) It had been on my to-do list for a long time. After all, one of the major attractions of getting a pilot’s license—one of the things that keeps you motivated through the often seemingly endless months of study—is that when it’s all over you get to see some of America’s most spectacular sights in a way that few are privileged to do.

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If you want to fly farther north, you’re supposed to call LaGuardia tower and ask for permission to cross over Central Park in the middle of Manhattan. The air traffic controllers are usually pretty busy, so what you need to do is call early in the flight—over Governor’s Island, say, in New York Harbor, opposite the Statue of Liberty—and give them time to find you on the radar and give you permission to cross through the Class B airspace. The route passes over tall buildings, so the controller usually tells you to climb to 1,500 feet.

Compared to the Hudson, the East River is very narrow as it doglegs right, then left. You don’t have much time to watch Brooklyn and Queens scroll past to the east before you bank west and cruise over Central Park. Then you tell LaGuardia tower that you’re going back to the VFR corridor on the Hudson, and you switch the radio back to the corridor frequency.

That’s how it’s supposed to be done. Apparently, Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger never called LaGuardia tower to get clearance to pass through Class B airspace. Air traffic control at Teterboro says one of the men radioed in that they’d just go a short distance up the river and turn around. But, as noted, the river is narrow, and at low altitudes it’s hemmed in by buildings; it’s a lot like being stuck in a slot canyon. The day’s low overcast made flying conditions even trickier. If Lidle and Stanger had climbed to a safer 1,500 feet, they would have been nearly in the clouds—a very dangerous situation for non-instrument rated pilots.

What if they’d gone straight ahead—that is, continued north? Well, they would have busted right into Class B airspace. Doing that without prior clearance from LaGuardia tower might have resulted in a reprimand, or even the temporary suspension of their licenses. To avoid that fate, they risked a worse one, and lost.

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Read the rest, with pictures, at the link.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

I received my ASEL flying out of HPN. My instructors all emphasized the same thing - traffic awareness. None was keen on flying in the Hudson exclusion zone and none would even attempt the East river.

The North end of the East river zone is in LGA airspace and as the article says, is very narrow. Fine for helicopters but silly for a fixed-wing aircraft.

Lidle was a "star" and his young flight instructor didn't have the sense to tell him "NO" when Lidle wanted to fly up the East side.

When you make a tight turn in a small aircraft, your flight path is towards the upper corner of the windshield - I would bet that by the time they saw the building, it was too late.

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I had a hard time understanding why they would make such a risky turn in confined quarters. The boundary between the VFR corridor and the LGA airspace is a reasonable explaination.

[Rio]

That's a nice article about VFR flight near class B airspace. I learned to fly beneath the San Francisco TCA/class B. Now I try to stay away from such things.

[ml/nj]

Flying the Hudson is (or maybe was - I haven't flown in ten years or so.) a piece of cake. My first night flight lesson included flying from the GW Bridge down to and around the Statue of Liberty and the back to the bridge. I've probably flown that same route at least ten times for "sightseers." (friends who just wanted to go flying, and it just more interesting to fly the Hudson than to circle the Great Swamp.) But I never flew up the East River. I didn't even know it was allowed until this accident occurred.

Here's what I think happened. Either Lidle or his instructor had done this before and "knew" what to expect, at least in good weather. Normally the winds are out of the west so when one has to make the 180 to avoid controlled airspace, and makes that 180 in the counterclockwise direction, the wind acts to allow a more gradual turn. That is it pushes you away Manhattan. But the weather was bad on the day of the accident. Usually when the weather is bad, the winds will be from the east. I don't know that this was the case last Wednesday, but I'm guessing it was. An east wind would tend to push an airplane making the counterclockwise turn TOWARD Manhattan, which means that the angle of bank required to make the turn must be much steeper. If one doesn't realize this in time, no angle of bank would be sufficient to avoid Manhattan. So you have the starstruck instructor, the relatively poor visiblity, and the unfamiliar east wind all probably contributing to getting to the point where avoiding the building was impossible.

ML/NJ

[Robe]

You are precisely correct.. I was discussing this accident with my brother who lives out on the Island and flies out of Republic. Like yourself he's made the Hudson river trip many many times.. We both learned to fly out of the old Morris Field in Staten Island (just dated myself, I think Morris Field closed 25-30 years ago.) There was a garbage incinerator plant near by and our instructors used that stack to teach just what you're saying. Without continuous modification of the angle of bank you would fly an EGG shaped pattern. We flew in circles till we were able to fly an EXACT circle.
Damn good training that was, stayed with me to this day !!

[GovernmentShrinker]

It's pathetic that Americans need the government to issue advance directives prohibiting them from doing stupid things like this, but that's just how it is. Not surprising IMO, that the case that proved the point involved a pro ball player. A huge chunk of Americans worship pro athletes, and particularly "major league" pro athletes, despite their demonstrated poor character and poorly developed minds. And people who go ga-ga over pro sports are too silly to make decisions about where and how it's safe to fly an airplane. There is an innocent woman who's going to be stuck in the hospital with nasty burns for a long time, thanks to these thrill-seeking idiots flying their plane into her apartment.

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I was in India when Rajeev Gandhi augered in while flying his stunt plane from Safdarjung Aerodrome in the middle of New Delhi. He was instructed to climb to 10,000 ft before performing any aerobatics. But he was Rajeev Gandhi. Nobody told him what to do. He pulled a loop soon after take off, and only made it 90% of the way around.

A priviledged "The Rules Do Not Apply To Me" attitude and flying are a dangerous combination.