Plane experts query how collision happened in ‘most controlled airspace’

The world of aviation is struggling to understand how a deadly outdoor collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter has been able to occur in what an expert described as “the most controlled airspace piece of the world “.

A Black Hawk Hawk helicopter with a three crew collided with an American Airlines aircraft carrying 64 people a few seconds before passenger planes had land at Washington National Airport.

On Wednesday evening, the two planes sent careers to the Potomac icy river.

The exact cause of the accident remains unknown.

Managers will publish a preliminary report within 30 days, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) – which conducts the investigation.

The crews were able to recover the flight data recorders – known as the Black Box – Wreck Thursday, according to the American BBC press partner, CBS. The devices can help investigators identify what has led to an accident.

The airspace above the Columbia district is strongly limited to protect national security and buildings that house the basic aspects of the American government.

Commercial planes are prevented from flying over the Pentagon, the White House and other historical landmarks.

However, the region sees a lot of air traffic, aviation lawyer Jim Brachle, who has treated numerous disputes related to Jets and Reagan airport, told BBC.

There is commercial traffic but also private aviation and helicopters flying in the city, often transporting high -ranking officials and politicians between sensitive locations.

“You have these really narrow trails in and outside and you have a lot of congestion and additional planes, so you put a lot of planes in a really confined space,” he said.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former plane accident investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the NTSB, told BBC Newsour that it seems that the helicopter was in communication with the control tower before the accident. The air traffic controller underlined the American Airlines flight to the helicopter, he said.

“The helicopter pilot indicated that he had the plane in sight and that he was going to separate visually – then the accident occurred shortly after – so there will be a lot of questions about exactly what The helicopter pilot saw? ” Mr. Guzzetti said.

Todd Inman, who is part of the Board of Directors of the NTSB of five members, said that DC is also a “unique environment” due to helicopters and specific areas that they have been authorized to fly.

“If you look at DC, you see a lot of helicopters going into this area, so there is a very well defined system in this regard,” he said.

Mr. Inman could not provide any specificity on the altitude of the helicopter before making a collision with the American Airlines flight.

Brachle, who has dealt with many disputes related to Jets and Reagan airport, told the BBC that the question that remains is how two planes found themselves in the same air space.

“What is really unique about Reagan is there on the river. There is also a helicopter route that crosses this final approach and it is or less than 200 feet,” he said.

Brachle said the routes for the two helicopters and the approach of planes intersect.

“You potentially put two different planes in a very small space with almost no separation,” he said. “If you get one that may be a little too low, one that is a little too high, you end up being in the same place.”

Aviation consultant Philip Butterworth-Hayes said that the incident had occurred at the “link of different aviation systems”, including civil and military systems, as well as specific procedures at the airport.

“You are on the border of three or four aviation systems here-and it is at these borders where most accidents tend to occur,” he added.

But the British aviation expert John Strickland said that the amount of commercial air traffic in the region cannot fully explain why the deadly collision could have occurred.

In addition to the national Washington near the city center, he notes, there is the international bridge, Washington Dulles and also Baltimore airport a little further.

“There must be management of traffic flows to maintain separation. It’s a bit like we did in London where you need to manage traffic flows between Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick and London City.

“So DC is no different in this sense of London or New York … It is not completely unusual.”

Mr. Butterworth -Hayes continued: “It is the most controlled airspace in the world. You have both the US government and civil systems – Ronald Reagan Airport even belongs to the government, C ‘ is one of the very rare like that.

“It is really the surest – and should be the safest airspace – in the world, given the number of safety and civil security organizations working in this area.”

The latest fatal accident involving a commercial plane in the United States took place in February 2009. Officials and experts stressed that this type of incident is incredibly rare due to close security restrictions on all types of flights.

Images obtained from a source of air traffic control by CBS News, the BBC news partner, have shown the two planes that seem to have been involved in the accident clearly visible on radar systems accessible to controllers .

Audio from BBC News seems to confirm that the helicopter was in contact with air traffic control over the airport.

The helicopter was asked if he had the passenger plan “in sight” and to “go behind”. In the following audio, the controllers seem to realize that there has been a collision and can be heard of other planes in the air towards neighboring airports.

Mr. Butterworth-Hayes said that an outdoor collision like this requires a number of things that do not go.

He said that to fly in civil airspace, the military helicopter should have been equipped with a transponder alerting the surrounding planes in its position.

This means that the two planes should have been able to see each other, he says, and there would have been instructions in air traffic control and a plane protection security device that works separately from each other.

“On this occasion, you have these two different systems and both should have been able to separate these planes.”

The Black Hawk helicopter was part of B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion. He left Belvoir, a military base in Virginia, and participated in a training exercise.

The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said that the helicopter crew was “quite experienced” and participated in an annual flight training session.

Addressing CNN, Cedric Leighton – a retired colonel of the Air Force – said that it was normal for this type of military aircraft to train at night in the region, in particular to ensure that The pilots are competent with the use of instruments necessary to fly in the dark.

He said that one of the functions of the unit is to transport high -ranking staff around the capital – although none was on board at the time of the accident because it was a flight D ‘training.

The unit pilots should be competent to fly in the occupied airspace of DC and “train to avoid incidents like this,” he added.

Butterworth-Hayes said that only experienced pilots could train in a section also loaded with airspace.

“Whether training for new systems or equipment, we must know which systems the pilot had turned into the helicopter and if they had all the safety systems on board, or if they were trying a new procedure or a new road. “