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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Day 2 of federal investigation into fatal midair crash of Army chopper, commercial plane opens
The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up FAA didn't add warning to helicopter charts, official says Advertisement NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said an FAA working group raised concerns about all the helicopter traffic around Reagan airport and the risk of a collision in 2022, but the FAA refused to add a warning to helicopter charts urging pilots to use caution when this runway was in use. 'This is the very event that this would have been the cautionary note for,' she said. Video and animation presented during the proceeding's first day showed the helicopter flying above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Advertisement Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. Concern about distances between planes and helicopters The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' said Scott Rosengren, who is chief engineer in the office that manages the Army's utility helicopters. During the two minutes before the crash, one air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, a task that involved speaking to or receiving communications from several different aircraft, according to the NTSB's History of Flight Performance Study. Advertisement The air traffic controller had spoken to or received communications from the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound flight that was not the American Airlines plane that would crash. 'All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes,' the report stated. 'This resulted in a number of stepped on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating.' Stepped on transmissions are those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report provides a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during approximately the 1 minute and 57 seconds before the collision. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capital with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- General
- Yahoo
Day 2 of federal investigation into fatal midair crash of Army chopper, commercial plane opens
The National Transportation Safety Board enters a second day of public hearings Thursday on the January midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane that killed all 67 people aboard the aircrafts. On the first day, investigators highlighted a number of factors that may have contributed to the crash and the warnings about helicopter traffic that FAA received years before the tragedy over the Potomac River. It's too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. The board's final report won't be released until sometime next year. But it became clear Wednesday how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. FAA didn't add warning to helicopter charts, official says NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said an FAA working group raised concerns about all the helicopter traffic around Reagan airport and the risk of a collision in 2022, but the FAA refused to add a warning to helicopter charts urging pilots to use caution when this runway was in use. 'This is the very event that this would have been the cautionary note for,' she said. Video and animation presented during the proceeding's first day showed the helicopter flying above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. Concern about distances between planes and helicopters The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' said Scott Rosengren, who is chief engineer in the office that manages the Army's utility helicopters. During the two minutes before the crash, one air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, a task that involved speaking to or receiving communications from several different aircraft, according to the NTSB's History of Flight Performance Study. The air traffic controller had spoken to or received communications from the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound flight that was not the American Airlines plane that would crash. 'All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes,' the report stated. 'This resulted in a number of stepped on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating.' Stepped on transmissions are those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report provides a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during approximately the 1 minute and 57 seconds before the collision. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capital with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. ___ Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story. Josh Funk, The Associated Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Key takeaways from the D.C. plane crash hearing
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Hearings on Thursday and Friday are expected to delve deeper into air traffic control procedures at the airport, how the relevant agencies collect and assess safety data, and the role that advanced collision avoidance technology could play in ensuring such crashes don't occur in the future. Advertisement Here are some of the takeaways from the hearing and the new documents released by the NTSB. Investigators have zeroed in on whether the helicopter pilot was misled by her instruments. Data from the crash showed that at least one barometric altimeter, the main instrument that measures altitude in the Black Hawk helicopter, was recording a flying height 80 to 100 feet lower than its true altitude. And under testing, the NTSB found that the altimeters could be off by up to 130 feet on Black Hawks flying over the Potomac River, which the helicopter and jet were flying over when they collided. Advertisement That could have caused the helicopter crew to believe they were flying at a safer, lower altitude when they were actually headed straight into the jet's path. Army experts testified that it was not uncommon for the barometric altimeter to be off by as much as 100 feet, and that such a discrepancy would not commonly be cause for alarm. The Army started to notice problems with the barometric altimeter readings on Black Hawks as far back as 1983, six years before the Army first acquired UH-60Ls like the one involved in the Jan. 29 crash. That craft was delivered to the Army in 2001. Sikorsky Aircraft, the manufacturer of the Black Hawk, discontinued the UH-60L model in 2006. An ad hoc working group raised concerns about the crowded D.C. airspace. A few years before the crash, there was a discussion among some Federal Aviation Administration officials, air traffic managers and other aviation industry representatives involved in an ad hoc helicopter working group at the control tower at National Airport about making changes along a particularly concerning helicopter route through the airspace, known as Route 4. There was widespread worry about the potential for collisions between helicopters flying that route and airplanes trying to land on the airport's Runway 33 -- pathways that came close to crisscrossing in midair, particularly without strict FAA rules for keeping the different kinds of aircraft separated vertically and in their planned routes. Advertisement But the discussions never moved up the chain at the FAA, NTSB officials and witnesses from the FAA said Wednesday, and the route did not change. 'It never got through the bureaucracy,' Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, told reporters after Wednesday's hearing. Air traffic control made an unusual move before the crash. The air traffic controller handling both helicopter and airplane traffic that night rerouted American Airlines Flight 5342 from the normal runway, Runway 1, to a lesser-used Runway 33. But instead of telling the approaching Army Black Hawk to hover in place until the jet passed, he allowed it to proceed along a helicopter route that crossed the plane's path of descent. Pilots described that move as unusual. They told the NTSB they had typically been told to pause over Hains Point, at the tip of an island north of the airport, until planes on this same cross-river approach had safely passed. 'If I was southbound, I was told to hold north by Hains Point,' Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 David Van Vechten Jr. said in an interview, the transcript of which was among the materials the NTSB released on Wednesday. 'Not one single time ever did they let me cross the approach path' of Runway 33, where the passenger jet was landing that night. Tensions between NTSB and the FAA were on display. Improvements to aviation safety require the NTSB and the FAA to work cooperatively, because the NTSB makes safety recommendations but it's up to the FAA to put them into place. But Wednesday, as the hearing neared its end, board members accused the FAA of knowingly stymieing efforts to improve safety at National Airport, and stonewalling parts of the board's investigation of the crash. Advertisement 'Every sign was there that there was a safety risk and the tower was telling you that,' Homendy said, raising her voice for the first time. She blamed FAA officials for not doing more to accelerate improvements to safety. 'Sixty-seven people are dead. How do you explain that?' she said, adding: 'Fix it. Do better.' She also criticized FAA officials for taking months to turn over documents pertaining to the staffing of the air traffic control tower, stressing that they were delivered only Friday after she went over their heads, enlisting FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to produce the records. Nick Fuller, the FAA's acting deputy chief operating officer for operations, defended the agency, arguing that it had been transparent with investigators, and had given them the 'latest and greatest' information. This article originally appeared in
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Day 2 of federal investigation into fatal midair crash of Army chopper, commercial plane opens
The National Transportation Safety Board enters a second day of public hearings Thursday on the January midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane that killed all 67 people aboard the aircrafts. On the first day, investigators highlighted a number of factors that may have contributed to the crash and the warnings about helicopter traffic that FAA received years before the tragedy over the Potomac River. It's too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. The board's final report won't be released until sometime next year. But it became clear Wednesday how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. FAA didn't add warning to helicopter charts, official says NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said an FAA working group raised concerns about all the helicopter traffic around Reagan airport and the risk of a collision in 2022, but the FAA refused to add a warning to helicopter charts urging pilots to use caution when this runway was in use. 'This is the very event that this would have been the cautionary note for,' she said. Video and animation presented during the proceeding's first day showed the helicopter flying above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. Concern about distances between planes and helicopters The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' said Scott Rosengren, who is chief engineer in the office that manages the Army's utility helicopters. During the two minutes before the crash, one air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, a task that involved speaking to or receiving communications from several different aircraft, according to the NTSB's History of Flight Performance Study. The air traffic controller had spoken to or received communications from the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound flight that was not the American Airlines plane that would crash. 'All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes,' the report stated. 'This resulted in a number of stepped on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating.' Stepped on transmissions are those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report provides a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during approximately the 1 minute and 57 seconds before the collision. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capital with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. ___ Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.
The Independent
an hour ago
- General
- The Independent
Day 2 of federal investigation into fatal midair crash of Army chopper, commercial plane opens
The National Transportation Safety Board enters a second day of public hearings Thursday on the January midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane that killed all 67 people aboard the aircrafts. On the first day, investigators highlighted a number of factors that may have contributed to the crash and the warnings about helicopter traffic that FAA received years before the tragedy over the Potomac River. It's too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. The board's final report won't be released until sometime next year. But it became clear Wednesday how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. FAA didn't add warning to helicopter charts, official says NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said an FAA working group raised concerns about all the helicopter traffic around Reagan airport and the risk of a collision in 2022, but the FAA refused to add a warning to helicopter charts urging pilots to use caution when this runway was in use. 'This is the very event that this would have been the cautionary note for,' she said. Video and animation presented during the proceeding's first day showed the helicopter flying above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. Concern about distances between planes and helicopters The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' said Scott Rosengren, who is chief engineer in the office that manages the Army's utility helicopters. During the two minutes before the crash, one air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, a task that involved speaking to or receiving communications from several different aircraft, according to the NTSB's History of Flight Performance Study. The air traffic controller had spoken to or received communications from the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound flight that was not the American Airlines plane that would crash. 'All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes,' the report stated. 'This resulted in a number of stepped on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating.' Stepped on transmissions are those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report provides a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during approximately the 1 minute and 57 seconds before the collision. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capital with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. ___ Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.
