What is known about the helicopter-plane crash that left 67 dead
A military helicopter and a passenger plane collided in Washington on the night of January 29-30, as the second plane was approaching Ronald Reagan Airport. Here is an update on the worst air disaster in the United States since November 2001.
Hours after the collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, investigators warned that they still did not have “enough information to be able to establish” the cause of the accident. It is impossible to “establish or rule out” human error or a mechanical incident, Todd Inman, head of the US Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told reporters. “We have elements, we have data, in substantial amounts. We have to verify it. We have to take our time to make sure it is accurate,” added Jennifer Homendy, Director of the NTSB. The plane’s two black boxes have been recovered and will now be analyzed. A preliminary report is expected within thirty days. In the meantime, investigators will release the information they have.
This may be a way to reduce speculation, given that US President Donald Trump has declared that the accident “should have been avoided.” Less than 24 hours after the crash, and with emergency services still recovering bodies from the Potomac, the US president denounced the policies of his Democratic predecessors. For him, it was an opportunity to highlight his decision to end affirmative action policies in hiring, and suggested that there had been human error. The helicopter “was on an incredibly bad trajectory,” he declared shortly after the catastrophe, deploring “the convergence of bad decisions.” President Joe Biden’s former Secretary of Transportation, Democrat Pete Buttigieg, called the accusation “despicable.” “At a time when families are grieving, Donald Trump should be leading, not lying.”
Chronicle of the tragedy
On Wednesday, shortly before 9pm (Thursday at 2am GMT), a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger plane operated by PSA, a subsidiary of American Airlines, as it approached Ronald Reagan Airport near Washington. The plane, a Bombardier CRJ 700, was flying from Wichita and was due to land a few minutes later. The helicopter was on a training flight. The two aircraft collided and crashed into the Potomac River.
More than 300 rescue workers were dispatched to the crash site in difficult conditions of darkness and cold. About forty bodies were found, according to the US media, and Donald Trump himself gave the final tally: no survivors. With a total of 67 victims, this is the deadliest air disaster in the United States since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 on November 12, 2001. Two months after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the plane crashed into a residential area of Queens (New York), killing 265 people.
Skating stars among the passengers
Three soldiers were on board the Sikorsky H-60 “Black Hawk” helicopter. The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. Among the passengers were several top skaters, including the Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. World champions in 1994 and married in 1995, they were 52 and 55 years old and were returning from Wichita, where their son Maxim had just competed in the US championships.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former Soviet figure skater, was also among the passengers, according to TASS and Ria Novosti. According to the American press, American figure skaters were also on board. In a press release, the International Figure Skating Federation expressed its emotion: “We are heartbroken to learn that figure skaters, as well as their families, friends and coaches, were on board the plane. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy. Figure skating is more than a sport: it is a close-knit family, and we stick together.”
One controller instead of two at the time of collision
This is certainly one of the elements that the NTSB will examine closely in its investigation: according to reports in the American media, the staff in the control tower at Ronald Reagan Airport was “not” at its “normal” level at the time of the disaster. According to a preliminary report by the American aviation regulator (FAA), cited by the New York Times and then by NBC News, the staff levels “were not normal for this time of day and the volume of traffic.”
“The controller who was in charge of the helicopters in the airport area on Wednesday evening was also giving instructions to the aircraft landing and taking off. (...) These functions are usually assigned to two controllers rather than one,” wrote the FAA. However, investigators have not yet confirmed these press reports.
Washington is constantly flown over by planes and helicopters at very low altitude. An audio recording of exchanges in the control tower shows controllers repeatedly asking the helicopter pilot if he had seen the American Airlines plane and then ordering him to “go behind it.” “I just saw a fireball and then it was gone,” one controller exclaimed, after communication with the helicopter was cut off.
Why the anti-collision system was deactivated
Passenger planes are equipped with an anti-collision system. In this case, it did not work because, logically, it was deactivated. This is what Gilles Diharce, an air traffic controller and aeronautical expert, explained to Daniel Vallot, a journalist for RFI's international service: “These systems are deactivated below a certain altitude, to avoid situations where planes are relatively close to each other: then we would have untimely evasive shots that would be even more dangerous for air safety.”
According to the radio transcripts, Gilles Diharce points out that the information about the presence of a passenger plane was indeed transmitted to the helicopter. “The question is: did he see the right plane? Because the radio transcripts say that another plane is landing. Could he not see this second plane? That is a question we can ask ourselves,” adds the expert. It is just one of the many questions that the investigators will have to answer.
Also 24 hours before the collision, another plane due to land at the same airport had to attempt a second approach because a helicopter was flying close to its path, the Washington Post and CNN reported, citing an audio recording from air traffic control.
