Arlington, Va. – The divers are expected to return to the Potomac River on Friday as part of recovery and research after A collision in the air killed 67 people in the most fatal aviation disaster in the United States in almost a quarter of a century.
The researchers have already recovered the voice recorder of the cabin and the flight recorder of the American Airlines plane that collided with an army helicopter while the plane landed on Wednesday night at Ronald Reagan National Airport with Washington DC officials are examining a variety of factors in what National Transport Security Board President Jennifer Hommendy has called for an “event of all hands on the deck.”
All on board The two planes They were killed, with officials who examined the actions of the military pilot, as well as air traffic control after the helicopter apparently flew to the jet American Airlines.
Air accident investigations can take months, and federal investigators told journalists on Thursday that they would not speculate on the cause.
At least 28 bodies have been taken from the Potomac River. The plane He took 60 passengers and four crew membersand three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
An air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and leaving airplanes when the collision occurred, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by Associated Press. These tasks are often divided by two people, but the airport usually combines roles at 9:30 pm, once traffic begins to decrease. On Wednesday, the tower supervisor directed that they combined before.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and the traffic volume,” the report said.
However, a person familiar with the matter said that the tower staff that night was at a normal level. The positions are combined regularly when the controllers must move away from the console to rest, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, said the person, talking about the condition of the anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
FAA has long fought with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
The authorities said the flight conditions were clear when the plane arrived from Wichita, Kansas, which leads, among others, A group of skillors from young elite figureshis parents and Trainersand four Steamfitters union in the Washington area.
A senior army aviation official said that the helicopter crew, a black hawk, had “a lot of experience” and was familiar with the congested flight that occurs daily around the city.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This was not something new for any of them, ”said Jonathan Koziol, head of the Army Aviation Cabinet.
The maximum allowed altitude of the helicopter at that time was 200 feet (approximately 60 meters), Koziol said. It was not clear immediately if it exceeded that limit, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the altitude seemed to be a factor in the collision.
Koziol said researchers must analyze flight data before reaching conclusions about altitude.
The flights in Reagan National resumed around noon on Thursday.
Wednesday accident It was the deadliest in the United States since November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy airport, killing the 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
He Last important fatal shock Involving an American commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. All aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane were killed, along with a person on the ground, which raised the dead of the dead to 50.
However, experts often emphasize that the plane trip is overwhelmingly safe. The National Security Council estimates that Americans have a probability of 1 in 93 to die in a car accident, while the deaths in the airplanes are too rare to calculate The probabilities. Figures of Department of Transportation Tell a similar story.
But airspace around Reagan National You can even challenge the most experienced pilots No matter how ideals are the conditions. They must navigate hundreds of other commercial airplanes, military airplanes and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
Little more than 24 hours before the fatal collision, a different regional plane had to continue for a second chance to land in Reagan National after a military helicopter was near, according to flight tracking sites and trunks of control. He landed safe minutes later.
___
Gómez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press Zeke Miller writers, Meg Kinnard, Chris Megerian, Michael Biesecker in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Arlington, Virginia; Brian Melley in London; John Hanna in Wichita, Kansas; and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed.
By
