The National Transportation Safety Board will question witnesses Thursday about air traffic control training and collision avoidance technology, two key parts of the investigation into January’s deadly midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It’s the second of three days of investigative hearings into what happened in the accident that killed 67 people.
That night, the Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot told air traffic controllers they could see the American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA Airlines, and would avoid it – but moments later they collided.
“It’s still remarkably hard to identify aircraft when you are flying,” testified Rich Dressler of Metro Aviation, which operates medical helicopters in Washington. “We use traffic alerts and traffic monitoring systems in our helicopters, all the DC operators, the civilian and law enforcement side.”
But on January 29, the Black Hawk didn’t have its ADS-B tracking transmissions turned on, which was a common practice. Dressler said helicopter pilots who flew in the Washington area all recognized each other, and he was wary of that military unit.
“Is there any unit that when you hear it makes you feel uncomfortable?” asked Brian Soper, NTSB investigator.
“Sadly, yes,” Dressler responded. “And as I said yesterday, I don’t like saying this. I’ll say it again on the record. I’m a former Army aviator, and I’m a retired Air Force officer … and I don’t like saying that 12th aviation battalion gives us all pause in the community. And I’m speaking from my group there; we are all very uncomfortable when those two units are operating.”
On Wednesday, the day began with an overview of the incident, including an 11-minute detailed timeline of the moments before the helicopter and regional jet collided midair. NTSB members later questioned witnesses for the Army and Federal Aviation Administration.
The NTSB also released thousands of pages of information gathered during the investigation, including cockpit voice recorder transcripts that detail the final moments before the collision. The transcripts showed one second before the collision, the helicopter’s instructor had told the pilot to change course.
The helicopter route at the time of the collision allowed the Black Hawk to fly as close as 75 feet below planes descending to land on runway 33 at Reagan National Airport, according to the NTSB.
In 10 hours of questioning Wednesday, the NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy grew frustrated with some of the answers given by representatives of the FAA and Army. After the hearing concluded for the day, she told reporters she has “concerns” there is a “safety culture” problem in both Army aviation and the air traffic organization of the FAA.
The hearing also uncovered that Army helicopters would regularly fly below aircraft that were descending to land at Reagan National Airport and they sometimes used civilian heliports without authorization.
“I don’t have concerns about the leadership, but I think they have issues below the leadership, with respect to flying underneath aircraft,” Homendy told reporters Wednesday night. “At no point should there ever be helicopters flying underneath civilian aircraft that are departing and landing on any runway, any runway in the national airspace. I’m concerned that if it’s happening here, that it’s happening somewhere else.”
Sixty-seven people died in the accident over the Potomac River, including 60 passengers and four crew members on the plane and three soldiers on the helicopter.
The NTSB will meet again on Friday. A determination of what caused the crash will come in January.
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