The army Dark Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger plane close Reagan Nationwide Airport Wednesday seems to were gliding above the authorised altitude, publicly to be had aviation knowledge analyzed by means of CBS Information displays.
This knowledge level is one in every of a number of key mysteries investigators are exploring as they search to give an explanation for what led to the nation’s worst air disaster in additional than a decade, flying professionals mentioned.
“That’s the $64 million question that needs to be answered,” mentioned Greg Feith, a former senior breeze protection investigator with the Nationwide Transportation Protection Board, in an interview with CBS Information.
The permitted flight ceiling at the Potomac River close Reagan Nationwide Airport is 200 toes – a a very powerful ceiling for holding the large current of army helicopters safely unclouded of the secure business airplane site visitors into and out of the population’s capital.
CBS Information
Information from FlightRadar24, which tracks and information airplane knowledge for many flights around the U.S., confirmed the helicopter’s endmost estimated altitude used to be about 400 toes when it crashed. The jet’s altitude used to be about 375 to 400 toes, consistent with knowledge from FlightAware and FlightRadar24.
“They’re military pilots; they’re familiar with the routes,” Feith mentioned. “Why is it on this day, on that flight, they were [as much as] 150 to 200 feet higher than they knew they should be?”
Steven B. Wallace, a former director of clash investigations for the Federal Gliding Management, advised CBS Information he believes investigators will direct consideration to the altitude of the Dark Hawk.
“I don’t want to speculate on the cause, but I can speculate what’s going through the mind of the investigators,” Wallace mentioned. “I think that is very likely going to be the focus.”
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth mentioned the investigation is inspecting if the airplane used to be on the proper altitude on the date. NTSB investigators have no longer thus far disclosed the helicopter’s altitude of their briefings, and mentioned their operating teams will evaluation “pre-impact course and altitude.”
Andrew Harnik / Getty Photographs
The Military helicopter’s redirection above the aviation ceiling is one in every of a number of indistinguishable close collisions involving helicopters at Reagan Nationwide that week again greater than a decade.
A close midair crash between an aircraft and a helicopter in July 2015 befell 400 toes off the garden on option to the similar runway being old in Wednesday’s strike – Runway 33 — consistent with a CBS Information Information Crew overview of nameless reviews to NASA’s Gliding Protection Reporting Machine.
The pilot’s record mentioned the airplane “came within very close contact of another aircraft.”
“This occurred about 400 feet off the ground to the point where the pilot monitoring had to take the controls to make a correction in order to prevent it from becoming a midair collision,” the 2015 record mentioned.
Two years previous, in Would possibly of 2013, a pilot reported issues of a helicopter past circling to land on Runway 33. That may be a shorter runway supposed for smaller airplane, like American Airways 5342. Pilots who land there advised CBS Information they need to be on the “floor,” or lowest altitude all the way through their means as a result of they want to crash the start of the runway to have most distance to cancel.
“As we continued our approach; Tower instructed the helicopter to ‘make a right 360 for a jet on a 2 mile final for Runway 33; and to report him in sight,” the pilot wrote.
“The Tower then asked the helicopter if he had us in sight. He replied ‘yes’; and the Tower told him to maintain visual separation,” the record mentioned. “As we began our turn from base to final; the helicopter made what looked like a right turn directly into our flight path.”
The pilot reported having to explode a brittle proper flip and abort the option to keep away from a crash. “I’m not sure how close we came to the helicopter since it was on the left side of the aircraft; but I would guess it was only a few hundred feet,” the record mentioned.
CBS Information’ overview of the NASA protection knowledge recognized no less than 9 close midair collisions on the airport since 2005, together with 3 involving helicopters.
Feith mentioned he believes investigators from the NTSB and the army will probably be inspecting the altimeters within the helicopter to look in the event that they malfunctioned, checking for any breeze have an effect on that may have hindered the pilot’s talent to book the helicopter at 200 toes, and exploring possibly sooner the team will have to were the usage of evening ocular goggles.
He mentioned the aviation recorders on each airplane will probably be useful in figuring out what took place. Government reported that they’d been recovered from the Potomac River on Thursday.
“If they had been at 200 feet, there wouldn’t have been an issue because the plane typically would’ve been 400 to 500 feet off the ground,” Feith mentioned. “Those two RJ [regional jet] pilots didn’t know what hit them until the helicopter hit them.”
