The crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided in midair with an American Airlines jet over Washington, D.C., and crashed into the Potomac River might not have heard instructions from an air traffic controller to pass behind the plane, investigators said Friday.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said a recording from the helicopter cockpit suggests the crew may have missed the key instruction just before the Jan. 29 collision, in which all 67 aboard the two aircraft were killed.
Seventeen seconds before the collision, a radio transmission from the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport directed the helicopter to pass behind the airliner, Homendy said. The transmission was audible on both aircraft cockpit voice recorders.
The Black Hawk crew may have never heard the words