The recent midair collision between single engine-plane and sightseeing helicopter had urged government into taking serious action in order to prevent midair collision. An equipment that could prevent midair collision is expected to be implemented and will be available by 2013, a federal aviation official told a Senate panel on Tuesday. But its use will not be required until 2020.

An interim solution has been suggested by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who was chairman of the hearing by a Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee on aviation. The solution was to install new radar on the George Washington Bridge, the device will be looking down the river, so Federal Aviation Administration controllers could see all the traffic and take responsibility for separating it.

The system would allow every aircraft determine its position with a GPS receiver, and then broadcast the signal to F.A.A. equipment on the ground. The F.A.A. equipment would collect the data and broadcast it back into the air. Planes can be equipped with video screens that show their own position, and the identity, position, altitude and speed of all traffic around them. However, it is said that the agency is lacked of equipment and the manpower to extend air traffic control to the hundreds of planes and helicopters using the Hudson River corridor every day.

Currently pilots avoid collision through a system called “see and avoid.” Pilots are advised to listen to a “common traffic advisory frequency” when they fly through the area, a tunnel over the Hudson from 1,100 feet down, and announce their presence and destination. The aviation agency says it will make that a requirement.

original news at http://www.nytimes.com