New York Metropolitan Airspace
This report presents the results of our review of reported near mid-air collisions (NMACs) within the New York metropolitan airspace. The review was initiated in response to a June 11, 2007, letter from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding five NMAC incidents that occurred in the New York area during May 2007.
The objectives of our review were to address the following questions raised by Senator Clinton:
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What were the root causes of the near misses reported in May 2007 within the New York airspace?
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How is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) addressing these issues, and what measures has the FAA implemented to prevent similar occurrences in the future?
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Do any New York-area airports utilize procedures similar to those that the FAA ordered halted at Memphis airport, where aircraft were permitted to land and depart simultaneously on nearby runways with intersecting flight paths?
Overall, we found that the five reported NMAC events were independent and unrelated incidents with no obvious common root causes. Four of the five events were later determined to pose no hazard, while only one incident was classified as having “potential” risk.
These NMACs were reported by commercial pilots who may initially have been “surprised” by the presence of visual flight rules (VFR) aircraft operating in nearby airspace. However, subsequent analysis determined that the incidents posed no actual threat to safety, regardless of any actions taken by the pilots involved.
Despite these findings, the four no-hazard incidents continue to be classified and counted as “near mid-air collisions,” a designation that we believe overstates and misrepresents the actual level of safety risk associated with these events.