IOOS Data Aids Search and Recovery in Hudson River Crash
Jennie Lyons
NOAA National Ocean Service
October 22, 2009 — Saturday, Aug. 8, was a “crystalline summer day” in Manhattan, reported The New York Times — one that seemed perfectly suited for an aerial tour over New York Harbor. The day turned tragic when a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter carrying five Italian tourists collided in midair over New York City’s Hudson River, killing all aboard both aircraft.
Behind the news coverage, a group worked diligently using data from the national Integrated Ocean Observing System (known as IOOS®), lead by NOAA, to help in search and recovery efforts immediately following the crash.
Map showing the New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System coverage among a wider cross-section of IOOS coverage within the Northeast. The system provided valuable data used in search and recovery efforts following the collision of a small airplane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River in August. Image credit: NOAA.
Helping the First Responders
Within an hour of the accident, Alan Blumberg, chief technologist with the Stevens Institute of Technology, a Mid-Atlantic regional partner with NOAA’s IOOS® Program, called staff to the scene to analyze water and river current data in the proposed search area. Current models, generated from local IOOS data, helped the state and federal dive teams, and the U.S. Coast Guard’s aerial search teams conduct searches when river conditions would be optimal.
When Rescue Turned to Recovery, IOOS Was There
IOOS river current data was especially pivotal to search and recovery efforts in the initial two-day period following the accident. The data allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lift the helicopter from the Hudson at just the right time when models predicted zero currents and the aircraft wreckage could be recovered without additional damage or loss of contents.
Three days after the collision, crews continued to search for pieces of the wreckage. Nickitas Georgas, a research engineer with the Stevens Institute of Technology, used IOOS ocean observation data from the New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System to identify the potential extent of the search and recovery area. Researchers were able to narrow down the area to a few-mile radius around the collision location, where divers successfully recovered the small plane’s windshield frame and a portion of the fuselage.
High frequency radar systems like this one in Pt. Conception, Calif., were used to monitor surface currents that supported search and recovery efforts following the accidental collision over the Hudson River. Photo credit: NOAA.