Researchers scramble To find out why a military helicopter and a passenger plane collided and at the end of Wednesday in the Potomac River in Washington DC, the first major American air crash in 16 years.
From the little one known, human error probably played a role that raised questions about a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers and pilots. Authorities can also look at coordination between military and civil aviation.
An army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers who apparently were plowed into the tail of a Bombardier CRJ-700-Jet from Wichita, because it was less than a mile of landing on Reagan National Airport. The flaming remains of both aircraft rushed a few hundred feet into the shallow, icy river.
The passenger jet, managed by regional carrier PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, had 64 people on board and police boats have already recovered 27 bodies. The last aircraft tragedy that was deadly in the United States was the Colgan Air Crash in the state of New York in 2009.
The helicopter is possible from a military base in the vicinity of the airport. In a grainy video of the Kennedy Center, a smaller light, presumably the helicopter, can be seen that catches the brighter light from the plane, both fly low to the ground. The two collide in a huge explosion and split into different burning fragments.
A few minutes before arrival, Air Traffic Control asked the American Airlines flight if it could land on Runway 33, a shorter runway. The pilots said yes, who apparently change running jobs during their approach. Some have wondered if this change in the flight path could have overwhelmed the Black Hawk.
But retired air force brigadier general John Teicert told NewsNation Television that this should not have caused a crash. “I think, although they were told to change running and runways, it is not this aggressive maneuver in a regional jet that would ask them to move and be a surprise for the Black Hawk,” he said.
Eighty percent of aviation accidents worldwide can be attributed to human errors, and that is an excellent candidate in this case, Marco Chan, a former pilot who now leads pilot programs to Buckinghamshire New University, told Wired.
“Perhaps safety protocols, human factors were playing,” he says. “I don't like to draw conclusions early. In general, worldwide, after the pandemic, while the passenger number has been reflected in a lot, I do not think that the workforce has been overtaken in every aspect of aviation. “
Air traffic control asked the helicopter if it had seen the plane and was told to “have the CRJ passed”, which would have had priority, unless the Black Hawk was on an urgent military mission. It is not known whether the helicopter responded.
Military flights sometimes work on different radio frequencies than passenger flights, so the crew of the passenger jet may not have heard the tower that the Black Hawk radio. Or there may have been a jammed transmission: if more than one party on a channel radio at the same time, it can prevent others from hearing the entire conversation.
