4 months ago
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(The Hill) — The Black Hawk pilots who collided with an American Airlines level past period whitethorn not person heard captious accusation fixed by aerial postulation power to alert down the rider pitchy seconds earlier the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed Friday.
Seventeen seconds earlier impact, a vigor transmission from the power operation directed the Black Hawk to walk down the jet. But information from the Army chopper indicated that “the information of the transmission that stated ‘pass down the’ whitethorn not person been received by the Black Hawk crew,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said astatine a Friday quality conference.
It is apt the Black Hawk pilots “stepped on” the connection for little than a 2nd by pressing the microphone cardinal to pass backmost to the power tower, she said.
Furthermore, the Black Hawk pilots whitethorn person had “bad data” connected the altitude they were flying astatine extracurricular Washington D.C. astatine the clip of the Jan. 29 collision, which killed each 67 radical aboard some flights, according to the agency.
The Black Hawk crashed into Flight 5342 conscionable earlier 9 p.m. arsenic the pitchy was en way to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kan. The collision sent some craft plunging into the Potomac River, the deadliest specified mishap since 2001.
“We are seeing conflicting accusation successful the data,” Homendy said, noting that the chopper was flying astatine 278 feet erstwhile it crashed — acold supra the 200-foot bounds for that location.
But “that does not mean that’s what the Black Hawk unit was seeing connected the barometric altimeters successful the cockpit,” she cautioned.
At 1 point, the aviator indicated they were flying astatine 300 feet, but the teacher aviator said they were astatine 400 feet, according to recordings.
“We are looking astatine the anticipation that determination whitethorn beryllium atrocious data,” she said.
Investigators besides judge the chopper pilots were wearing nighttime imaginativeness goggles and had been the full flight.
She said that the on-scene signifier of the probe into the catastrophe had been finished, but due to the fact that of the conflicting information with the Black Hawk’s altitude, the NTSB is not yet releasing accusation for the helicopter’s full route.
Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that helicopters and airplanes would nary longer beryllium capable to stock the airspace supra the Potomac River, a determination made aft speculation the Black Hawk had been flying too high.
The mishap has also prompted wide concern over the staffing shortages astatine the FAA with President Trump vowing to overhaul the bureau and air postulation control.
