The military black hawk helicopter He crashed into a passenger plane Near the Reagan National Airport on Wednesday it seems to have been flying above the allowed altitude, publicly available flight data analyzed by CBS News.
This data point is one of the various key mysteries that researchers are exploring while seeking to explain what caused the cause of the The worst air disaster of the nation In more than a decade, they said aviation experts.
“That is the $ 64 million question that must be answered,” said Greg Feith, former senior air security researcher at the National Transportation Security Board, in an interview with CBS News.
The allowed flight roof In the Potomac River, near the Reagan National Airport, there are 200 feet, a crucial roof to maintain the strong flow of military helicopters safely in the constant traffic of commercial airplanes inside and outside the capital of the nation.
CBS news
Flightradar24 data, which tracks and records aircraft data for most flights in the USA. The altitude of the plane was approximately 375 to 400 feet, according to FlightTAware and FlightRadar24 data.
“They are military pilots; they are familiar with the routes,” said Feith. “Why is it on this day, on that flight? [as much as] 150 to 200 feet higher than they knew they should be? “
Steven B. Wallace, former director of accident investigations for the Federal Aviation Administration, told CBS News that he believes researchers will direct the altitude attention of Black Hawk.
“I don’t want to speculate on the cause, but I can speculate what is going through the minds of the researchers,” Wallace said. “I think it is very likely that it is the focus.”
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, said the investigation is examining whether the plane was at the right altitude at that time. NTSB researchers have not revealed so far the altitude of the helicopter in their informative sessions, and said that their working groups will evaluate the “course and the altitude prior to the impact.”
Andrew Harnik / Getty images
The deviation of the army helicopter above the flight roof is one of several similar nearby collisions that involve helicopters in Reagan National that date back to more than a decade.
A close collision in the air between a plane and a helicopter in July 2015 occurred 400 feet from the ground when approaching the same track used in Wednesday’s accident, Runway 33, according to a review of the news data team from news data from CBS of anonymous reports to NASA aviation security reports. System.
The pilot’s report said the plane “came into a very close contact of another plane.”
“This happened about 400 feet from the ground to the point where the pilot monitoring had to take controls to make a correction to prevent it from becoming a collision in the air,” said the 2015 report.
Two years before, in May 2013, a pilot reported problems with a helicopter while turning to land on track 33. That is a short CBS News that want to be in the “floor” or the lowest altitude during their focus because they need to reach the start of the track to have a maximum distance to stop.
“While we continue our approach; Tower instructed the helicopter to make a correct 360 for a plane in a 2 mile final for track 33; and reported in sight,” the pilot wrote.
“The tower then asked the helicopter if he had us. “When we started our base turn at the end; the helicopter did what seemed like a right turn directly on our flight route.”
The pilot reported having to run a right turn and abort the approach to avoid a collision. “I am not sure how close we were to the helicopter, since it was on the left side of the plane; but I guess there were just a few hundred feet,” the report said.
The CBS News review of NASA’s security data identified at least nine collisions near airport since 2005, including three that involve helicopters.
Feith said he believes that NTSB researchers and military will examine the altimeters in the helicopter to see if they do not work bad Crew should have been using night vision glasses.
He said that the flight recorders on both planes will be useful to determine what happened. The authorities reported that they had been recovered from the Potomac River on Thursday.
“If they had been at 200 feet, there would not have been a problem because the plane would usually have been 400 to 500 feet from the ground,” Feith said. “Those two RJ [regional jet] The pilots did not know what hit them until the helicopter hit them. “
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