Investigators have uncovered numerous factors that contributed to a U.S. Army helicopter and a passenger airplane colliding over Washington last January…
Investigators have uncovered numerous factors that contributed to a U.S. Army helicopter and a passenger airplane colliding over Washington last January, killing 67 people in the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001.
The National Transportation Safety Board will discuss the investigation’s findings Tuesday and recommend changes to prevent similar tragedies. Thursday marks one year since the crash.
The NTSB has said the helicopter was flying higher than it was supposed to and the altimeter the pilots relied on was faulty. Plus, the Federal Aviation Administration failed to act on warnings about the risks around Washington that the NTSB said should have been clear years earlier.
The FAA is making temporary changes it imposed after the crash permanent. The rules say helicopters and planes can’t share the same airspace around Reagan National Airport, and they prohibit air traffic controllers from relying on visual separation and require all military aircraft to broadcast their locations.
Here’s a timeline of events related to the crash:
Around 8:15 p.m., American Airlines Flight 5342, with 64 people on board, begins its initial descent into Reagan National Airport.
At 8:43, from the airport’s tower, a controller asks the plane’s pilots to switch from landing on Runway 1 to Runway 33. Nearby an Army Black Hawk helicopter, referred to as PAT25 by air traffic control, is flying south over the river. The skies are clear.
As the helicopter approaches the airport, the cockpit voice recorder captures the pilot saying it is flying at 300 feet (91 meters) and the instructor pilot says it is at 400 feet (122 meters). The discrepancy isn’t explained and the helicopter continues to descend. The helicopter route’s allowed altitude decreases the closer it gets to the airport, capping at 200 feet (61 meters).
At 8:46, the controller radios the Black Hawk crew to say a passenger jet, referred to as CRJ, is at 1,200 feet (365 meters) and circling to Runway 33. The helicopter’s pilots say they see the jet and ask to maintain visual separation — to fly closer than if the pilots didn’t see the plane. Controllers approve the request.
At 8:47 — 20 seconds before impact — the controller radios: “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?” while a conflict alarm sounds. Then, again: “PAT25, pass behind the CRJ.” But the NTSB said the helicopter’s recorder shows the pilots may never have heard that instruction.
One second later the plane’s crew gets a collision avoidance alert declaring “Traffic! Traffic!”
A few seconds later, a crew member on the helicopter replies that the aircraft “is in sight” and again requests “visual separation.”
Just after the plane descends past its last recorded altitude of 313 feet (95 meters), the pilots pull up the nose sharply in an evasive maneuver one second before impact.
Then a commotion is heard on the tower audio. A flash appears in the sky, and both aircraft fall into the river.
