The The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington last week may have been flying higher than the maximum altitude for its training mission, autorities say.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators have determined the CRJ700 airplane was at 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet, at the time of impact, officials said at briefing late Saturday. The information was based on data recovered from the jet’s flight data recorder that tracks the aircraft’s movements, speed and other technical information.
One second before impact, the crew aboard the American flight had a “verbal reaction,” according to the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, and flight data shows the plane’s nose began to rise, officials said.
The plane’s altitude suggests the Army helicopter was flying above 200 feet − the maximum altitude for the route it was using. Yet the control tower’s radar apparently showed the helicopter at 200 feet at the time of the accident, though that information has not been confirmed.
“That’s what our job is, to figure that out,” NTSB board member Todd Inman said.
The helicopter collided Wednesday night with American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, which was minutes from touching down at Reagan Washington National Airport. All 64 people aboard the plane and all three aboard the helicopter perished.
DC plane crash:NTSB on air traffic control tower staffing, last-second communications
Developments:
∎ The National Transportation Safety Board plans to have a complete transcription of the communications among the aircraft and traffic controllers available Sunday.
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‘Consolidation’ of controllers took place before crash
Air traffic control staffing in Washington the night of the crash “wasn’t normal,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed Sunday. “We have to look, and there’s a consolidation of air traffic controllers an hour before it was supposed to happen during the time of this crash,” Duffy said. “What was the appropriateness of that?”
Duffy added that the U.S. hasn’t had enough air traffic controllers in America “for a very long time.”
Helicopter was training to evacuate US leaders in event of attack
The Black Hawk helicopter was on a training flight for a military mission to evacuate senior officials should the U.S. come under attack, authorities say. The military mission, known as “continuity of government” and “continuity of operations,” is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described the flight as “a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission” but provided no details on the mission. The Black Hawk crew had night vision goggles on board for the training mission along the Potomac River on a path known as Route 4.
“Some of their mission is to support the Department of Defense if something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders,” said Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the Army’s Aviation Directorate.
NTSB staff reportedly not eligible for federal buyouts
All 400 NTSB staffers received the email titled “Fork in the Road” that effectively offered a buyout from the federal government, CNN reported citing multiple sources. Federal employees on Tuesday received the offer from the Trump administration to resign and be paid through September. The crash over the Potomac occurred the next day.
An internal NTSB memo informed employees Friday that they would not be eligible for the program, CNN reported.
Contributing: Reuters
