Searchers Find, Can't Recover 8th Body

(NEWSER) - Above the Hudson River west of Manhattan, where a helicopter and a light plane fatally collided on Saturday, a pilot can have as many as a dozen other aircraft to monitor at busy moments. Flight instructors describe the river corridor as dangerous and tunnel-like, and government is once again facing calls to step in. "It's the Wild West out there, totally unregulated, and no one knows where these pilots are," one official tells the New York Times. More»

Controller failed to inform him, NTSB report finds

(NEWSER) - An air traffic controller failed to warn the pilot of a plane in last weekend's mid-air collision over the Hudson River, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled today. Chatting on the phone, the controller did not inform the pilot that "there were several aircraft detected by radar in the area immediately ahead of the airplane, including the accident helicopter," said the NTSB. The controller and his supervisor are on paid leave while the FAA begins disciplinary proceedings against them, the Star-Ledger reports. More»

(NEWSER) - An Italian mom too frightened to take a helicopter tour of Manhattan saved her life—but lost most of her family as the copter collided with a plane over the Hudson River, reports the New York Daily News. Silvia Rigamonti got cold feet at the last minute. The tour was supposed to be part of her 25th wedding anniversary celebration. Soon after she chickened out, her teenage son, husband, and a family of three who had traveled to New York with Rigamonti's family were dead. More»