NEW YORK CITY (BNO NEWS) — The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it has suspended an air traffic controller handling the Piper aircraft which crashed mid-air with a helicopter over New York City’s Hudson river, killing nine people.

“We learned that the controller handling the Piper flight was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident,” said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA. Brown could not confirm who he was talking with but the New York Daily News reported that it was his girlfriend who he was talking with.

Brown also said that the supervisor was not present in the building, as is required. Both the air traffic controller as well as the supervisor have been but on administrative leave and disciplinary proceedings are underway. “This kind of conduct is unacceptable,” Brown said.

She said there is no reason to believe, at this time, that these actions contributed to the deadly crash.