Within three days of sometimes controversial this week, the National Transportation Safety Commission asked the Federal Aviation Administration and Army officials a list of issues that went wrong and contributed to the Blackhawk helicopter and a passenger plane crashing in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
The biggest revelation is that the helicopter’s altitude instrument was damaged, and the controller warned the FAA several years ago about the dangers of helicopter mechanisms.
Once, NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy scolded the FAA for not solving the security issues.
“Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead! How do you explain it? Our bureaucratic procedures?” she said. “Fix it. Do better.”
The victims of the January crash included a group of young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four joint steam wingers from the Washington area.
Here’s the main takeaway from the collision hearing, which shocked travelers during other crashes and close calls this year and increased their concerns about flying:
The helicopter’s altimeter is wrong
When the helicopter collided with the passenger plane, the helicopter flew over 278 feet (85 meters), which was much higher than the 200 feet (61 meters) ceiling on the route. But investigators say pilots may not realize that the readings of the barometer they rely on are 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude registered by the flight data recorder.
The NTSB then discovered similar differences in altimeters in the other three helicopters of the same unit.
Experts at Sikorsky said the man who made the Black Hawk said the crasher was an older model that lacked air data computers, making the height readings of the newer version more accurate.
Army Chief Warranty Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that the difference between 80 and 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) between different altimeters on the helicopter would not be shocking, because at lower altitudes, she would rely more on the altimeter of the radar altimeter. Plus, Army pilots struggle to stay within a target altitude of 100 feet (30 meters) on the flight so they can still do that.
However, Rick Dressler of Medevac operator Metro Aviation told NTSB that inaccuracy won’t fly with his helicopter. Delaidler said when a helicopter route in which the Black Hawk flew like included an altitude limit, his pilot thought it was a hard ceiling.
FAA and Army Defense Operations, Transfer Reproach
Both of them tried to transfer the responsibility for the crash to the responsibility, but the testimony highlighted many things that might be done in different ways. The final report of the NTSB will be completed next year, but one cause of the crash may not be found.
“I think this is a week for the FAA and the U.S. Army in this accident,” said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant and former crash investigator.
Army officials said the concern was that the FAA approved the route around Ronald Reagan International Airport, which was 75 feet (23 meters) away when the plane landed on a certain runway in Reagan.
“The fact that we are less than 500 feet apart is my focus,” said Scott Rosengren, chief engineer of the office that manages Army Utilities Helicopters.
Army Chief Assurance Officer David Van Vechten said he was surprised that the air traffic controller allowed the helicopter to continue as the plane circled on Reagan’s secondary runway landed, and it was used for use when traffic on the main runway piled up and accounted for about 5% of the flight.
Van Vechten said he was never allowed to fly on a landing plane like the Black Hawk, but the route he flew only a few hundred times, involving the plane landing on that runway. Other pilots in the department told crash investigators that it would usually lead to flights under landing aircraft, which they believe would be safe if they stick to the approved route.
Frank McIntosh, head of the FAA’s air traffic control organization, said he believes Reagan’s controllers “really rely on the use of visual separation” to keep traffic moving forward in busy airspace. The controllers repeatedly said that they would only “make it work.” They sometimes use “squeeze drama” to land the plane with minimal separation.
On the night of the crash, a controller asked the helicopter pilot twice if there was a jet, and the pilot said they did and asked for visual separation approval so that they could keep their distance with their eyes. Testimony at the hearing raised serious questions about the crew’s status of the plane while wearing night vision goggles and whether the pilot was watching in the right position.
The controller admitted in an interview that the pilot of the aircraft was never warned when the helicopter was on the collision path, but the controller did not believe the aircraft made a difference at that time. The plane landed after a cockpit warning and tried to pull up at the last second, but it was too late.
FAA has been warned about the dangers of DC helicopter traffic
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) task force attempted to add a warning in 2022 urging pilots to exercise caution when using secondary runways, but the agency refused. “Helicopter operations are triggering proximity actions for security incidents. These events have been moving in the wrong direction and are increasing year by year,” the task force said.
In addition, another group at the airport discussed the action on the mobile helicopter route, but these discussions did not proceed. The manager of the regional radar facilities in the region urged a written reduction in the number of aircraft, which was taken off and landed in Reagan due to safety concerns.
The NTSB also said that the FAA failed to recognize 85 disturbing history around Reagan in the three years before the collision.
“Every sign has a safety risk, the tower tells you,” NTSB chairman Jennifer Homendy said. But after the accident, the FAA moved the manager out of the airport instead of admitting they had been warned.
“What you do is transfer people out, not take ownership, i.e. everyone in the FAA in the tower is saying there is a problem,” Homendy said. “But you point out, ‘Welp, our bureaucratic process. Someone should bring it up in some other workshops.'”
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Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam contributed.
