Indications that arise from the moments before the fatal collision on Wednesday evening between an army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger beam suggest that several layers of the country's security apparatus failed, according to Flight Recordings, a provisional internal report with the interviews with the interviews with the interviews with Current and former air traffic controllers and others have informed this.
The helicopter flew outside his approved flight path. The pilots of the American Airlines probably did not see the helicopter close when they made a turn to the starting track. And the air traffic controller, who juggled at the same time as two jobs, could not keep the helicopter and the plane separate.
A FAA spokesperson said that the agency could not comment on the current investigation, which is led by the National Transportation Safety Board. In the coming months, crash researchers will spend on assessing flight data, recordings from the cockpits, weather patterns, as well as interview controllers and others involved to try to find out what went wrong.
But the catastrophe seemed to confirm what pilots, air traffic controllers and security experts have been warning for years: growing holes in the aviation system could lead to the type of crash that 67 people left dead in the Potomac River in Washington.
Even before an official cause was determined, there were signs on Wednesday that pilots and air traffic controllers at Reagan National did not operate under optimum conditions.
The duties of dealing with air traffic control for helicopters and for aircraft at Reagan National on Wednesday evening were combined before the deadly crash. That left an air traffic controller handled those double roles, according to a person who was informed about the staff and the report.
Usually one person treats both helicopter and aircraft tasks after 9.30 pm when the traffic at Reagan starts to reduce. But the supervisor combined those tasks somewhere before 9:30 and one air traffic controller allowed, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly speak about the investigation into the crash. The crash took place just before 9 p.m.
Although there were no unusual factors that caused a distraction for controllers that night, the staff was “not normal for the time of day and the traffic volume,” said the provisional FAA report.
On Thursday, five current and former controllers said the controller in the tower The helicopter and the aircraft must have led more proactively to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to stay away from the plane.
Some current and former controllers said that darkness could have made it harder for pilots to accurately measure the distance between themselves and other planes. Some wondered if the helicopter pilots have confused another plane for the American jet.
The helicopter would fly closer to the banks of the Potomac River and fly lower to the ground while crossing the busy Reagan National Airspace, according to four people who were aware of the incident.
Before a helicopter can enter a busy commercial airspace, it must be approved by an air traffic controller. In this case, the pilot asked permission to use a specific predetermined route with which helicopters can fly at a low height along the bank on the east side of the Potomac, a location that would have had it avoided from the American Airlines plane plane plane .
The requested route – referred to as route 4 at Reagan National – followed a specific path that is known to the air traffic controller and helicopter pilots. The helicopter confirmed a visual view of a regional jet and the air traffic controller ordered the helicopter to follow the route and fly behind the plane.
But the helicopter did not follow the intended route, said the people who informed the issue.
It was rather more than 300 feet, when it had to fly under 200 feet, and it was at least half a mile of the approved route when it clashed with the commercial radius.
A high army officer insisted on caution when making possible assessments until the black box of the helicopter could be restored and analyzed, together with other forensic data.
The civil servant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said that the Black Hawk pilots had flown this route earlier and were well aware of the height restrictions and tight aircraft that they were allowed to fly near the airport.
Aviation safety has been increasing for years, leading to an alarming pattern of narrow calls in the air and at airports involving commercial airlines. They have taken place in the midst of rising congestion at the busiest airports in the country, including Reagan National, where the frequent presence of military flights makes control of traffic even more complicated.
At the same time, a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers forced many to work for six days and 10 hours-a schedule that is so tired that several federal agencies have warned that it could hinder the possibilities of controllers to do their work well. Few facilities have sufficiently fully certified air traffic controllers, according to a Times research in 2023. Some controllers say that little has been improved since then.
The air traffic control stations at Reagan National has been understaffed for years. The tower there was almost a third of focused personnel levels, with 19 fully certified controllers from September 2023, according to the most recent air traffic controller personnel plan, an annual report at the congress that contains target and actual personnel levels. The goals set by the FAA and the Union of the controllers require 30.
A FAA spokesperson said on Thursday that Reagan National currently employs 25 certified controllers from their goal of 28.
The controller who used helicopters in the vicinity on Wednesday evening also instructed aircraft that lands and departure from the runways. Those jobs are usually assigned to two controllers, instead of one, the internal FAA report said. This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and complicates the task.
Controllers can also use various radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying aircraft and pilots flying helicopters. While the controller communicates with pilots from the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not hear each other.
While the passenger jet pilots approached the airport, they were asked by the air traffic control to run the landing from one runway to another, according to the FAA report, a person informed about the incident and audio recordings of conversations between one Air traffic controller and the pilots. That request may have introduced another complication shortly before the collision.
The flight of the American Airlines was originally deleted by the traffic control tower to land on the main road of the airport, called Runway 1. The controller then asked the pilot to land on another, intersecting runway – Runway 33 – that the that the pilot agreed to do.
According to the person who was informed about the incident and four other people who are familiar with air traffic of the airport, routinely happens when regional jets such as the American Airlines planes are involved. The decision may also have been made to keep air traffic efficiently by not hiding the main job, the people said.
Runway 33 is shorter and requires intense focus of pilots landing their planes. The last-minute change called on Thursday morning questions in the FAA about congestion at Reagan National, the person who was informed about the event added.
Robert Isom, the chief executive of the American, said at a press conference on Thursday that the pilots of the passenger plane involved in the crash had been working for PSA Airlines, an American subsidiary, for several years. The captain was employed by the airline for almost six years, while the first officer had worked there for almost two years.
“These were experienced pilots,” he said.
Nicholas-Pogelburghs contributed reporting.
