The primary day of the three-day investigative hearings on the lethal midair collision over Washington, D.C., in January ended with extra questions on what triggered the crash between a passenger airplane and an Military helicopter.
The American Airways flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a Black Hawk helicopter whereas coming in for a touchdown at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport on Jan. 29, killing all 67 individuals aboard each plane. The Nationwide Transportation Security Board on Wednesday questioned witnesses from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Military about how the actions of air visitors controllers and Military officers might have contributed to the nation’s deadliest airplane crash since November 2001.
“This hearing is a critical part of our ongoing investigation,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy mentioned in her opening remarks within the nation’s capital. Addressing relations of a few of the crash victims attending the listening to, she mentioned, “Please know that we are working diligently to make sure we know what occurred, how it occurred, and to prevent it from ever happening again.”
The listening to started round 9 a.m. and stretched into 7 p.m. Within the final half hour, Homendy grew to become upset, saying, “Every sign was there that there was a safety risk” within the Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport airspace.
Newly launched video of midair impression
The NTSB’s lead investigator started by presenting an 11-minute animation that recreated occasions main as much as the collision. On the finish, it included newly launched surveillance video with a transparent view of the Black Hawk helicopter approaching the trail of American Airways Flight 5342, adopted by the midair impression. Earlier than the video was performed, households attending the listening to had been allowed to depart the room.
This picture from video launched by the NTSB reveals the second earlier than the collision of an Military Black Hawk helicopter and American Airways flight 5342 over Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2025.
Nationwide Transportation Security Board
The airplane’s cockpit voice recorder confirmed that roughly 20 seconds earlier than the collision, the pilots obtained an audible warning from the Visitors Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) noting “traffic,” however not giving them a decision advisory to take motion. Only one to 2 seconds earlier than the collision, there’s a sound of a click on and one of many pilots exclaims, “Oh,” adopted by an expletive. From one other doc launched within the investigation, it seems the pilots pulled again totally on the yoke to attempt to keep away from the collision.
“I know that my son saw that helicopter one second before impact, and they tried very hard to avoid it,” Lilley mentioned. “Sam was a good pilot, and he would have been trying to fly that aircraft all the way, all the way to the bottom.”
The cockpit voice recorder transcript additionally reveals that because the pilots approached for touchdown, that they had a visible on runway 1 when air visitors controllers requested them to take runway 33 as an alternative. The pilots mentioned it between themselves, with one saying, “I really don’t want to but I guess…,” then mentioned, “it’s fine,” including, “tell ’em we’re fine we’ll do three-three, we’ll do it.”
The collision, which despatched wreckage plummeting into the Potomac River, was the primary in a string of crashes and close to misses this yr which have alarmed officers and the touring public, regardless of statistics that also present flying stays the most secure type of transportation.
Investigations have already proven the FAA failed to acknowledge a troubling historical past of 85 close to misses round Reagan airport within the years earlier than the collision, and that the Military’s helicopters routinely flew across the nation’s capital with a key piece of finding tools, referred to as ADS-B Out, turned off.
In April, the FAA introduced in a brand new administration crew to the air visitors management tower at Reagan Nationwide Airport, changing three senior managers. Homendy blasted FAA officers on the listening to on Wednesday over the transfer.
“What you did is you transferred people out instead of taking ownership over the fact that everybody in FAA, in the tower, was saying there was a problem,” Homendy mentioned. “Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead. How do you explain that? Our bureaucratic process?”
A part of the wreckage is seen as rescue crews search the waters of the Potomac River after American Airways flight 5342 crashed on strategy to Reagan Nationwide Airport after colliding with a U.S. Military helicopter, on Jan. 30, 2025.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Aviation lawyer Bob Clifford, who’s working to file one of many first lawsuits towards the federal government subsequent month, mentioned he hopes NTSB will look past the instant components that triggered this crash to focus on the larger ongoing considerations within the crowded Washington airspace.
“In this particular instance, there’s a much broader picture. And that is the known problems that were being ignored about an unsafe environment for the commercial aircraft to be navigating with the military aviation helicopters in the area,” Clifford mentioned.
Laws to require upgraded expertise
Despite the fact that the ultimate NTSB report gained’t be launched till someday subsequent yr, Sen. Ted Cruz isn’t ready to suggest adjustments. He launched laws Tuesday that will require all plane operators to make use of each types of ADS-B, or Computerized Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, the expertise to broadcast plane location knowledge to different planes and air visitors controllers. Most plane as we speak are geared up with ADS-B Out tools however the airways must add the extra complete ADS-B In expertise to their planes.
“There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety,” Cruz mentioned. “We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights, operating in congested air space.”
The laws would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Division of Protection aircrafts. It additionally would require the FAA to guage helicopter routes close to airports and require the Military Inspector Common to assessment the Military’s aviation security practices.
Homendy mentioned her company has been recommending that transfer for many years after a number of different crashes.
“In 2008, we sent a letter to FAA stating the board believes that the equipage of aircraft with ADS-B In capability will provide — and I want to stress this — an immediate and substantial contribution to safety, especially during operations in and around airports,” she mentioned.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned that whereas he’d like to debate “a few tweaks,” the laws is “the right approach.” He additionally advised that the earlier administration “was asleep at the wheel” amid dozens of near-misses within the airspace round Washington’s airspace.
“In the past, people became complacent — leaders became complacent,” Duffy mentioned.
A “fact-finding proceeding”
Homendy mentioned the hearings over the following few days can be a “fact-finding proceeding.” As well as, the NTSB can also be posting 1000’s of pages of proof from the crash investigation on-line.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford mentioned that he expects “we’re going to have some very uncomfortable conversations over the next two and a half days” however that “they need to be had in the clear light of day — and simply put the best interest of the traveling public ahead of any of our personal interests, perhaps.”
The hearings in Washington contain NTSB board members, investigators and witnesses for organizations concerned within the crash. Panels will give attention to navy helicopter routes within the Washington space, collision avoidance expertise and coaching for air visitors controllers at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport, amongst different topics.
Federal officers have additionally raised considerations over the nation’s outdated and understaffed air visitors management system. Throughout January’s midair crash above Washington, one controller was dealing with each business airline and helicopter visitors on the busy airport.
Duffy has introduced a multibillion-dollar plan to overtake the system controllers use that depends on outdated expertise like floppy disks.
Kris Van Cleave and
Kathryn Krupnik
contributed to this report.
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