Divers are expected to return to the Potomac River on Friday as part of the recovery and investigation after a midair collision killed 67 people in the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
Investigators have already recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane that collided with an army helicopter as the plane was landing Wednesday night at Ronald Reagan National Airport next to Washington, D.C.
All aboard the two aircraft were killed, with officials examining the actions of the military pilot as well as air traffic control after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the Bombardier CRJ700 jet operated by American Airlines. Officials from the multiple agencies involved in the investigation would not speculate on the cause on Thursday.
Authorities were still looking for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter’s recorder, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday on Fox News Channel. Other factors in the crash, including the helicopter’s altitude and whether the crew was using its night vision goggles, are still under investigation, Hegseth said.
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the water, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The National breaks down the timeline of the deadly collision between American Airlines flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Air traffic controller staffing examined
The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter. One air traffic controller was responsible for co-ordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press.
Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said.
The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kan. A top army aviation official said the crew of the helicopter, a Black Hawk, was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around the city.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for army aviation. The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time was 60 metres, Koziol said.
It was not immediately clear whether it exceeded that limit.
The airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots no matter how ideal the conditions. They must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
Just over 24 hours before the fatal collision, a different regional jet had to go around for a second chance at landing at Reagan National after it was advised about a military helicopter nearby, according to flight tracking sites and control logs.
Aviation experts say landing at Washington’s three major airports has been challenging for decades due to a high flight volume, limited airspace and the existence of two no-fly zones.
Data retrieval can be lengthy process
Air crash investigations can take several months, and experts caution that no two probes are the same, with the flight records not always able to provide full answers. Virtually all accidents involve multiple factors.
There are two recorders mandatory in civil aviation: a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) for pilot voices or cockpit sounds, and a separate Flight Data Recorder (FDR). Some devices combine both functions.
After contact with water, they must first be thoroughly dried and the connections cleaned to ensure data is not erased accidentally. Audio and data files are downloaded and copied.
The data itself means little at first. It must be decoded from raw files before being turned into graphs and synchronized with other data, such as air traffic control transmissions.
NTSB investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 airplane involved in yesterday’s mid-air collision at DCA. The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation. <a href=”https://t.co/IHypR0Jh76″>pic.twitter.com/IHypR0Jh76</a>
—@NTSB_Newsroom
Lab experts sometimes use “spectral analysis,” a way of deciphering fleeting sounds or barely audible alarms.
A spate of accidents in the 1990s in which recorders had stopped working when power was lost led the NTSB to recommend enough backup power to provide 10 minutes of extra recording.
Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, N.Y., just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground.
The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, along with one person on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 50.
Experts often highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe.
