The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into flight data discrepancies, potential altimeter malfunctions and a possible miscommunication with air traffic control in the midair collision of an Army helicopter and a commercial airplane last month in the deadliest U.S. air crash in almost a quarter century.
“We are looking at the possibility of there may be bad data,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference on Friday. “We have a lot of work to do till we get to that.”
The Jan. 29 collision near Washington, D.C., that killed everyone aboard the plane and in the helicopter, 67 people in all, has prompted fears of flying in the busy airspace above the nation’s capital, which transports roughly 25 million people each year.
The deadly accident has raised questions about whether helicopters — in particular military training flights — should be allowed to share such a narrow and busy airspace with commercial airplanes. It was the first major fatal commercial plane crash in the U.S. since 2009.
Aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River, in Washington, DC., on Jan. 30. Brandon Giles / U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
Video captured the moment the UH 60 Black Hawk crashed into American Eagle Flight 5342, the explosion lighting up the night sky as the aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River.
More than two dozen people connected to the sport of figure skating, including many young Olympic hopefuls, were on the American Eagle flight traveling from Wichita, Kansas. Among the three Army soldiers who died on the Black Hawk was a 28-year-old helicopter repairer who leaves behind an 18-month-old son.
Homendy said Friday the pilot flying the helicopter was on a “combined annual and night vision goggle check ride.” Check rides are generally an exam pilots must pass to perform specific aircrew or mission duties.
Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, she said. Homendy noted that if the goggles had been removed, the crew was required to have a discussion about going unaided.
“There is no evidence on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of such a discussion,” she said at the news conference.
Homendy noted that there has been some discrepancy in the altitude of the helicopter. At 8:43 p.m. ET, the pilot flying indicated they were at about 300 feet, but an instructor pilot indicated they were at about 400 feet.
“Neither pilot made a comment discussing an altitude discrepancy,” she said. “At this time, we don’t know why there was a discrepancy between the two. That’s something the investigative team is analyzing.”
The helicopter also may not have received crucial information from air traffic control before the collision, she said.
At 8:46 p.m. a radio transmission from the tower was heard on the plane’s cockpit voice recorder informing the helicopter that a plane at 1,200 feet was circling just south of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.
But cockpit voice recorder data from the helicopter indicates that the portion of the transition about the plane “may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew,” Homendy said.
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