Washington – The airspace around Washington, DC, is congested and complex: a combination of aviation experts has worried for a long time could lead to a catastrophe.
Those fears materialized on Wednesday night when An American Airlines plane crashed with a military helicopterTaking the life of 67 people, including three soldiers and more than a dozen figurative skaters.
Even in maximum flight conditions, experts said, airspace around the Reagan Washington National Airport can challenge the most experienced pilots, which must navigate hundreds of other commercial airplanes, military airplanes and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
“This was a disaster that expected it to happen,” said Ross Aimer, a retired captain from United Airlines and executive director of Aero Consulting Experts. “Those of us who have been close for a long time have been shouting in the void that something like this would happen because our systems stretch to the extremes.”
There was no immediate word in the cause of collision, But the authorities said the flight conditions were clear when the plane arrived from Wichita, Kansas. The researchers have already begun to examine all aspects of the shock, including questions about why the Black Hawk army helicopter was at 100 feet above its allowed altitude and if the air traffic control tower had the staff properly. TO Federal Aviation Administration Report Obtained by Associated Press described personnel levels as “not normal for the time of day and traffic volume.”
As the authorities have the most fatal American plane crash in the nation since 2001, the tragedy has generated new concerns about the specific hazards in Reagan National, which has seen a series of almost false in recent years. The experts and some legislators said that they are worried that the airspace is about to congest more following the decision of the Congress last year to relieve the restrictions that the airport had limited to flightsless flights within 1,250 miles (2,012 kilometers) of Washington, with few exceptions. .
Legislators allowed airlines to launch new routes to destinations such as Seattle and San Francisco. The plan fed an intense debate about congestion versus convenience, and some legislators announce new flights to their national states, while others warned about the possible tragedy. The flight that crashed on Wednesday was not part of the expansion. It was added by American Airlines in January last year in the midst of an impulse of Kansas legislators for greater service between Reagan National and Wichita.
The commercial airplanes that enter and leave Reagan National have had to deal with military helicopters that cross the same airspace within the surprising times.
“Even if everyone is doing what they are supposed to do, you only have a few hundred feet of separation between the aircraft that can land and the many helicopters along that route,” said Jim Brauchle, a former browser from The United States Air Force and Aviation Lawyer. “It doesn’t leave much margin of error.”
The pilots have warned for a long time on a “nightmare scenario” near the airport with commercial aircraft and military helicopters crossing roads, especially at night, when the bright lights of the city can make it difficult to see airplanes that are approaching are more difficult.
Little more than 24 hours before Wednesday’s fatal collision, a different regional plane had to continue for a second chance to land in Reagan National after a nearby military helicopter was informed, according to flight and trunks monitoring sites of control. He landed safe minutes later.
The retired pilot of the US Army Guard. UU., Darrell Feller, said the accident this week reminded him of an incident he experienced a decade ago when a military helicopter flew to the south along the Potomac River near Reagan National.
An air traffic controller advised him to be attentive to a plane that lands on track 3-3, an approach that requires planes to fly directly on the route used by military helicopters and application of the law that transits the capital of The nation.
Feller could not choose the plane that approaches against the city’s lights and cars on a nearby bridge. He immediately descended, spraying only 50 feet on the water to make sure the descending plane would pass it over.
“I couldn’t see it. I lost it in the city’s lights, ”said Feller, who withdrew from the army in 2014, said Thursday. “It scares me.”
Feller’s experience was disturbingly similar to what the experts said it could have happened with the army helicopter crew on Wednesday shortly before 9 pm while flying south along the Potomac and collided with an landing by American Airlines Flight 5342 on track 3-3.
When the American Airlines plane approached the airport, the air traffic controllers asked their pilots if they could land on track 3-3 instead of the longest and most occupied northern track. The plane pilots altered their approach, heading to the east shore of the Potomac before returning to the river to land in 3-3.
Less than 30 seconds before the accident, an air traffic controller asked the Army helicopter if he had the American Airlines plane in sight, and the military pilot replied yes. The driver then instructed Black Hawk to pass behind the plane. Seconds after that last transmission, the two planes collided in a fireball.
Feller, who served as an instructor pilot for the DC National Guard, said he had several rules for the new pilots to avoid such collisions. He warned them to stay below the mandatory 200 feet roof for helicopters. And urged them to be guard for airplanes that land 3-3 because they could be difficult to detect.
The “landing lights of the plans do not point directly,” said Feller, added that these lights are also “mixed with earth lights, with cars.”
Wednesday’s accident remembered a deadly collision in 1949, when Washington’s airspace was considerably full. A passenger plane in the final approach of what is now the Reagan airport collided with a military plane, sinking both planes to the Potomac River and killing 55 people. At that time, it was the most fatal plane accident in the United States
Jack Schonely, a helicopter pilot from the retired Los Angeles Police Department, said he has been passenger on helicopter walks through DC and was always surprised by how complicated it seems for the pilots.
“You have two large airports. You have multiple restricted areas. You have altitude restrictions. Routine restrictions and a lot of air traffic, ”he said. “There are many things in a tight area.”
Robert Clifford, an aviation lawyer, said the United States government should temporarily stop military helicopter flights in airspace used by commercial airlines near Reagan National.
“I cannot overcome how incredibly clear that this was a preventable shock and this should never have happened,” said Clifford. “There have been discussions for some time on the congestion associated with that and the disaster potential. And we saw him return home last night.
__ Foley reported from the city of Iowa, Iowa. Associated Press journalists Michael R. Sisak and Joseph Frederick in New York, Zeke Miller in Washington, Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.
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