Pataki, Bloomberg Disagree Over City Flight Restrictions

Governor Pataki’s call for the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider its lax regulation of the Manhattan skyline is already drawing skepticism from the avid private pilot who holds the city’s top public job, Mayor Bloomberg.Following the Wednesday plane crash in which Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and a flight instructor died, Mr. Pataki called on the FAA to extend indefinitely its temporary restriction of airspace down the East River.The FAA did not do so. At about 7 p.m. Wednesday, slightly more than four hours after the crash, the restrictions were lifted, a spokeswoman for the FAA, Arlene Murray, confirmed yesterday.“It was lifted when it was no longer needed,” Ms. Murray said.Some are questioning that assessment, expressing concern that the FAA’s decision leaves the city vulnerable to another terrorist attack from the skies.Many New Yorkers, including the governor, learned only Wednesday that despite the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, pilots are permitted to fly at low altitudes over the Hudson and East rivers without filing a flight plan or giving any notice. The restrictions put in place on such flights following the attacks remained in effect for slightly more than three months, until December 19, 2001.“I was surprised as any other New Yorker that someone flying visually, not under the control of any towers of the airports, could just circle Manhattan,” Mr. Pataki said yesterday at a press conference on an unrelated topic.He seemed skeptical of allowing private pilots to fly unsupervised so near the city.Mr. Pataki said he thinks the FAA “should take a hard look and say what sort of restrictions have to be put in place permanently based on what happened yesterday,” referring to the crash of the plane into an Upper East Side apartment building. “I think the federal government has to take a much tougher line on general aviation flying over this great city.”Mayor Bloomberg had another take on the situation.”There are procedures that allow an awful lot of traffic there to safely move up and down the rivers, to do sightseeing and bring people into the city and take them out, for business and pleasure reasons,” he said.He also suggested that it was an overreaction to respond to what looked like an accidental crash with immediate calls for more restrictions.“Every time you have an automobile accident you’re not going to go and close the streets, or prohibit people from driving, and this may very well be the same thing,” Mr. Bloomberg said.Many private pilots across the country are expected to oppose a policy interfering with the access private pilots have long enjoyed to this country’s skies.A spokeswoman for the Maryland-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which has more than 400,000 members across the country, said that there was no need to “restrict a pilot’s right to fly.”The spokeswoman, Kathryn Fitz-Patrick, said: “This airspace has been like this in New York for years, and the FAA has determined that general aviation is not a security risk and we oppose any restrictions.”In the past, AOPA has lobbied Congress in opposition to calls for flight restrictions over New York City, a review of the group’s tax filing containing its 2004 expenditures shows.Some pilots have suggested that small private planes, even in the hands of terrorists, pose little danger to Manhattan because they can carry only light loads. One private pilot, John Dalsheim, who said he often flies low over the Hudson River, said that a small private plane could carry only a small fraction of the amount of explosives or fuel that an ordinary passenger van could carry.One pilot, who said he used to frequently fly along the coast of Manhattan, said the September 11 attacks caused him to wonder at the wisdom of allowing the general public such access.“I remember flying past the World Trade Center so perfectly legal and so close it seems you can reach out and touch it,” the pilot, Justin Green, who once flew helicopters in the Marine Corps, said. “Fifteen minutes ago I was some guy at an airport and 15 minutes later I was at the World Trade Center. That is something I thought about after 9/11.”

Pataki, Bloomberg Disagree Over City Flight Restrictions

Pataki, Bloomberg Disagree Over City Flight Restrictions

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