placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings , '' FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said at the time . The recording , released for the first time Thursday , caught the air traffic controller at Teterboro airport having a giggly chat with the woman , suggesting she grill the dead cat she apparently found . A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the woman was the controller 's girlfriend . `` That thing was disgusting , '' she says , to which the controller responds , `` Chinese people do it , so why ca n't we ? '' The exchange , which lasts about six minutes , is interrupted by a controller at the Newark airport , who asks the Teterboro controller for help with air traffic . `` Hey , Teterboro ... would you switch that guy , maybe put him on a two-twenty heading to get away from that other traffic please ? '' the Newark controller is heard saying . The Teterboro controller seems to be juggling both conversations , telling to woman to `` hold on real quick '' while asking the Newark controller to repeat the request . ``
NEW YORK -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- An air traffic controller was joking with a woman about a dead cat just moments before a helicopter and small plane collided over the Hudson River in August , according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration . The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted on August 11 from the Hudson River . There were no survivors from the August 8 crash , in which three people died aboard the Piper Saratoga PA-32 fixed-wing plane that collided with a helicopter carrying six people , five of them Italian tourists . The FAA in August confirmed the air traffic controller at New Jersey 's Teterboro airport , who initially handled the flight of the Piper before handing off to Newark controllers , had `` involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident . '' The controller and his supervisor , who was not in the building as required , were suspended . `` While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident , this kind of conduct is unacceptable , and we have