Flying helicopters near the Ronal Dragan National Airport are always at risk. However, the non -monthless night conditions, when the Army Black Hawk Helicopter and American Airlines' passenger guns collided, were unusually challenging.
Many of the causes that contributed to the disaster are still revealed because the National Traffic Safety Commission is trying to reconstruct the collision of 67 killing. The aerial collision, which caused the debris from both aircraft to fall into the Potomac River below, was the most deadly air accident in Japan since 2009.
Investigators say that the helicopter is about 100 feet higher than the permit in the specified part of the airspace, and is trying to judge the reason.
However, the interview with the helicopter pilot suggests that Blackhawk is also dealing with a series of complex flight conditions. Some of them were typical of the lively area around the national airport on the outskirts of Washington, which were unique to a series of events that occurred last Wednesday. 。 And the crew was flying an old model aircraft that lacked specific safety technology in a common cockpit in US commercial airplanes.
“Given the complexity of all there is a place of higher risk for flying,” said a former black hawk instructor of the Army, Austin Ross, frequently on a helicoptar route near the national airport while working. It is said that he flew to.
NTSB's safety investigator does not evaluate the responsibility of the Blackhawk crew. Blackhawk crew states that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegousz said he had a considerable experience.
The Safety Bureau said on Tuesday that there is still information that needs to be collected from a helicopter. According to investigators, the two aircraft collided with 300 feet. This is the details of the question about how the helicopter got off the course, given that the flight of more than 200 feet above the ground was not allowed.
The New York Times is a certain situation in which the crew faced the CRASH night, through an interview with a pilot of a private helicopter that frequently flys on a route near the six people and the original military carrier. I connected the understanding of.
The UH-60 Blackhawk crew has become dark last Wednesday, then leaves the hometown of Virginia, and enables the enabled to make an annual evaluation flight required by Colonel Lebecca Robach, a co-pilot. The mission was carried out.
It was part of a small group of military and private legal enforcement helicopters that were allowed to fly in a very restricted airspace in Washington and northern Virginia. These pilots generally need to fly along the specified route following the Potomax River and the Anacostia River. Air control officers in the national airport tower manage helicopters and airplaces.
These routes specify a specific highly restriction of helicopters along the water, including Route 4, which prohibits more than 200 Feats exceeding 200 feet beyond the stretching of the collision.
According to some pilots, there is almost no room to control in the case of an emergency. At such a low altitude across the river, moving up is a more realistic reaction.
Ross said that there is a helicopal route at Dless International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Surgd Marshall Airport.
“I can't think of a place where I can fly next to the major airport in 200 feet,” said Ross, who was in the same unit as the CRASH helicopter crew. Combination of dark sky and surrounding cities -If the crew is wearing a night vision goggles, the light that was amplified in an exponential function -the possibility that he was distracted when searching for nearby air traffic. There is.
“They are flying on the black water surface of Potomac in the clutter of the ground and the building behind it,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, a member of the Illinois Democratic Party member who flew a black hawk helicopter in a military career. I did it.
At around 8:46 pm on Wednesday last Wednesday, an air control officer warned helicopter crew that there was a nearby passenger jet. The American Airlines 5342, the airplane, was redirected from the runway 1, which is generally used, to an unused runway 33.
Captain Robach repeatedly flew the National Airport helicopal route, saying that Robach was the most likely to be in the right side, but a senior official who demanded anonymous because he was not allowed to speak publicly.
If the instructor pilot was busy or was distracted by something, the seat of Captain Robach, on the right side of the aircraft, put her in a poor position to see the American Airlines Flight to go down to the left. He said this was important.
Nevertheless, other experienced military pilots said they were confused by CRASH, given that the military pilots were trained to respond to such danger.
Blackhawk, a twin engine aircraft that influenced various models in the 1970s, was a long -term US military, both in general and more customized missions. Even in the Army alone, about 2,000 black hawks are running today.
Black Hawks is ubiquitous in the Washington area, which is the home of some of the aviation worlds, where both the White House, Pentagon, and the training of the training and the president and other high -ranking officials begin.
The 12th Aeronautics Battalion of Fort Belvoa will fly two types of black hawks, UH-60L, old models, VH-60m, new ones. The aircraft involved in the crash was an old model. According to the senior army officials, pilots do not have the ability to fly in the auto pilot, but are not considered inadequate.
Anyway, officials said that the crew flying along the Potomax would not have thought that Autopilot would be useful. He said that low -level flights require constant attention to terrain, obstacles, and routes.
Black Hawks, even older models, is not particularly difficult to operate, said the current and original military flight. However, congestion around the national airport, one of the busy public spaces in Japan, requires a specific skill level and the willingness to take off the passengers safely and land as needed. 。
“The aircraft was in the wrong place before being in the same airspace as the CRJ,” he said, saying John Cloud Nicks, a pilot of a former Shikai helicopter, using the jet for the collision. I said.
Nicks, who reviewed the records of air traffic control and other crashes, said, “They need to be a little controlled to properly identify or find the right traffic.”
He said at the last moment of CRASH, the blackhawk crew was essentially itself to avoid collisions. This is because the crew demanded something known as “visual separation” according to the voice recording of air traffic control. Under the Air Regulations, the crew searches for nearby traffic without supporting the controller.
And the old blackhawk model, whose crew flew last Wednesday, would not have had a standard air -safe system among US passenger jets.
For example, there was no traffic collision avoidance system called TCAS. This allows the pilot to warn the fact that the plane is dangerously close to other aircraft, and if the crash appears to be imminent, you can redirect the pilot and climb immediately.
Pilots say that one or all of these factors may have contributed to a series of tragic sequences.
“Especially on the route,” Ross said. “The altitude is 200 feet. It is close to other aircraft. The lighting conditions are strict, and there are not many places in the world to anyone at once.”
