New Jersey ? The crowded airspace over the Hudson River, where nine people died in the collision of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter, will be split into a low-altitude zone for local traffic and a higher one for longer-distance flights, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

The new rules provide structure to a Hudson River air corridor that some pilots had compared to the wild West, with helicopters loaded with commuters and sightseers cutting across the waterway as fixed-wing private planes travel down it on longer journeys.

The changes, which follow recommendations in an FAA task force report compiled after the Aug. 8 collision, are to take effect Thursday.