Cnn
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The American Airlines flight involved in the deadly collision with a Black Hawk helicopter on Washington, DC, seemed to increase its land just before the impact, according to preliminary data from a data recorder recovered from the plane.
“At one point, very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in the field,” said the member of the board of directors of national transport, Todd Inman, during ‘A press conference on Saturday evening. “This is something on which we will give you more details.”
The observation is one of the first information that emerged while the NTSB strives to investigate the disaster in which 67 people were killed. The Black Hawk helicopter was training to evacuate government representatives in the event of a disaster when the collision with the passenger jet occurred.
The agency is still working to transcribe the entire audio of vocal recorders, said Brice Banning, the NTSB investigator in charge.
The preliminary data announced at the press conference indicate that the helicopter may have stolen from the altitude authorized in the corridor. The initial data show that the regional aircraft of American Airlines was flying at around 325 feet, more or less 25 feet, at the time of the impact, according to Inman.
But the data available for air traffic controllers have shown that the helicopter was 200 feet near the accident, an unexplained gap they will need to investigate more.
If the impact took place at 325 feet, it would have been well above the 200 feet limit to which the helicopters are limited in the corridor. The helicopter used specialized corridors for the police, military and government helicopters in the Washington region. The federal graphics of the Aviation Federation show and helicopters confirmed by the NTSB in the corridor must be or less than 200 feet above sea level.
Inman noted that investigators “do not currently have the reading of the Black Hawk”, so they cannot provide information on the altitude that the helicopter was flying. But “obviously, an impact has occurred, and I would say that when an impact occurs, it is generally where the altitude of the two planes was currently,” he said.
The flight tracking data of moments before the deadly collision of the air seem to show the flying helicopter 100 feet above its authorized altitude and target the prescribed road along the east side of the Potomac river.
President Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth raised the issue of altitude.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, a lot. He was well above the 200 feet limit, “said Trump in a social article on Truth on Friday.
“Someone was in bad altitude,” HegSeth told Fox News on Friday morning. “Was Black Hawk too high?” Was it on the right track? Right now, we don’t quite know.
The vocal recorder of the black box of the helicopter was also recovered without any sign of external damage, according to Inman.
The NTSB began to interview air traffic control staff, who will continue for a few days, said Inman.
The slight increase in height could show the pilots trying to go up the plane after suddenly noticed the helicopter, Mary Schiavo, former general inspector of the Ministry of Transport, told CNN on Saturday.
“It tells us that they only saw the helicopter just, you know, a second in the impact,” said Schiavo. “But they had a second to try to stop.”
The gap between the altitude of the plane and the altitude of the helicopter as reported by air traffic controllers “will be the source of a large investigation,” added Schiavo.
At the time of the collision, the Black Hawk military helicopter was training to evacuate government representatives in the case of a catastrophic event.
Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff of the army aviation leadership, told journalists on Thursday that the pilots were training for a scenario when “something really bad happens in this area, and we must move our senior leaders “. This evacuation would be part of what Hegseth described as “continuity of the government mission”.
To perform such an evacuation, added Koziol, the pilots “must be able to understand the environment, air traffic, the routes, to ensure the safe journey of our senior leaders throughout our government.”
The accident would have killed 67 people, including three army airmen in the Black Hawk: Captain Rebecca Lobach, 28, who was identified on Saturday; Sgt of staff. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28 years old; And the chief adjutant 2 Andrew Lloyd Eaves, 39 years old. While the army released the names of the other two soldiers aboard the Black Hawk on Friday, the name of Lobach had been selected at the request of his family.
The pilots who fly with the 12th aviation battalion, based in very Belvoir, in Virginia, frequently fly along the Potomac river and the past of the national airport Reagan for various missions – often carrying general officers or heads of ‘Army towards and from the Pentagon, or other VIPs elsewhere in the northeast.
Brad Bowman, a former Black Hawk pilot and member of the 12th aviation battalion that served on September 11, 2001, told CNN that on the Rougan route Reagan, the helicopters fell to their lowest altitude of all the flight, With the intention of being low to “set off with planes to Reagan”.
“(T) low -level helicopter roads have been active for decades – this area is one of the most popular aviation operation centers in the country, if not the world,” said Bowman, who is Also principal director of the Center on Military and political power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “This is a concert or an activity orchestra that requires careful communication and cooperation between the pilots and the Reagan tower.”
“Everyone must be on their game and follow the instructions exactly,” added Bowman.
Meanwhile, reports appeared that can show that the collision is part of a more important problem. During the three years preceding the deadly collision, at least two other pilots reported failures with helicopters while landing at Reagan National Airport.
The inadequate staff of the Reagan airport tower was not an anomaly either. The country’s airports have had trouble with the granting levels to the controller for years, according to a CNN examination of government data and interviews with aviation experts.
The outdoor collision between the Black Hawk Hawk helicopter and the American Eagle Flight 5342 near DC Reagan National Airport has marked the deadliest aviation disaster in the United States since 2001.
The crews are still working to recover the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the victims of the Potomac river. The victims include a number of young artistic skaters returning from a development camp in Kansas, as well as three soldiers aboard the Black Hawk.
The NTSB is investigating the devastating crash and will take around 30 days to publish a preliminary report. A final report, which will determine a probable cause, will take much more time, said the board of directors.
Forty-two bodies were recovered at the scene of the deadly open-air collision on the Potomac river, authorities announced on Saturday.
“The rescue teams recovered 42 remains sets and 38 were positively identified by the DC office of the chief forensic scientist,” said Unified Command in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
The Black Hawk helicopter, while stabilizing briefly to help the recovery efforts, remains in the water, the authorities said.
“Today, the US Army Corps of Engineers’ rescue teams and the US Navy rescue and diving supervisor assess the area and are preparing for the recovery of the plane,” a statement said.
“Divers of the rescue company investigate the wreckage throughout the day. Additional barges and equipment should arrive later this afternoon. No wreck should be removed on Saturday, “said the statement.
The chief of DC Fire and EMS, John Donly Sr., had previously declared that he thought it was necessary to remove the fuselage from the water aircraft in order to recover all the bodies.
Friday, if the authorities are convinced to know where the remaining bodies are, Donelly said: “We think we know where they are”, but “we will not know before we finish”.
