Chopper crash renews 9/11 worry about rogue aircraft in NYC

if it is determined that the aircraft poses an imminent security threat.”Investigators say the pilot who died in the crash Monday afternoon just a few blocks from Trump Tower did not seek such permission and didn’t contact air-traffic control because he wasn’t required to do so, given his intended route, which was supposed to take him around Manhattan to the helicopter’s home base in New Jersey.After taking off from a heliport on Manhattan’s East Side, the chopper instead strayed over midtown in heavy rain and thick fog and slammed into the roof of the 750-foot (229-meter) AXA Equitable building during a flight that lasted 11 minutes.An official who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity because the federal investigation is still going on said that 58-year-old commercial pilot Tim McCormack radioed just before the crash that he was lost and trying to get back to the heliport.Whether anyone noticed the plane’s intrusion into the no-fly zone before the crash is unclear. The North Jersey Record reported that aircraft were sent to intercept violators around Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, 29 times in 2017 alone.Hillier said air combat stations are “spread throughout the U.S. and Canada and are capable of responding to any aircraft,” but he would not disclose the number of fighter jets in the New York City area.Jeffrey Price, a pilot and aviation security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said military commanders would need “extraordinary, credible information” about a threat before ordering a plane to be shot down.“Fortunately since 9/11 we’ve never had to come to that conclusion of shoot or don’t shoot,” he said.