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The Army helicopter that collided with a commercial plane over Washington, D.C., in January had incorrect altitude readings, which contributed to the aircraft getting too close, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) findings.
The NTSB kicked off the first day of hearings in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Jan. 29 crash between an American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport that left 67 people dead.
Air traffic controllers reportedly warned about the hazards of helicopter traffic near the airport for years leading up to the crash, but concerns raised about the Black Hawk helicopter’s route were not addressed. The Federal Aviation Administration also allegedly did not make route changes or warn pilots, despite 85 near misses in the past three years at the airport.
“It’s so bureaucratic,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said during the hearing, adding, in part, that “people are so critical of the federal government because you can’t ensure safety.”
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Army and FAA representatives attempted to point blame toward air traffic controllers and the lack of separation between planes landing at the airport and helicopters flying on approved routes, but later implied that the routes weren’t supposed to ensure separation.
The Army did acknowledge that Black Hawk altimeters may be more than 100 feet off before adding that their pilots aim to maintain altitude within 100 feet of a limit.
Lawyer Bob Clifford, who is representing several victims’ families, said the hearing had a lot of “finger-pointing” and “no acceptance of responsibility and accountability.”
Though the final report will not be released until next year, the hearing on Wednesday revealed how small the margin of error was for helicopters flying the route that the Black Hawk took that night.
The flight data recorder showed the helicopter was 80 to 100 feet higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying, investigators said on Wednesday. The NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters.
The bigger concern, Army officials said, is that there are some FAA-approved routes around the airport with separation distances as small as 75 feet when planes are landing on a certain runway.
“The fact that we have less than 500 feet separation is a concern for me,” Scott Rosengren, chief engineer in the office that manages the Army’s utility helicopters, said during the hearing.
Rosengren said that “if he was king for a day” he would immediately retire all the older Black Hawk models like the one involved in the crash and replace them with newer versions.
During the two minutes before the crash, an air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, which included communications with several different aircraft on two different frequencies, according to the NTSB’s History of Flight Performance Study released on Wednesday.
The air traffic controller had communicated with the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound airplane that was not the one involved in the crash.
“All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes,” the report said. “This resulted in a number of stepped-on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating.”
Stepped on transmissions refers to those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report includes a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during the two minutes before the crash.
Previously disclosed air traffic control audio featured the helicopter pilot telling the air traffic controller twice that they had noticed the plane and would avoid it.
Officials on Wednesday also raised concerns about the use of night vision goggles on the helicopter as a factor in the crash, as the goggles limit the field of view.
Investigations have previously shown that the FAA failed to recognize a history of 85 near-misses around the airport in the three years before the collision and that the Army’s helicopters routinely flew around Washington with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off.
Even if they had been turned on, the ADS-B Out systems on most of the helicopters in the same unit as the one that crashed would not work because they had been installed incorrectly, officials said on Wednesday. When the NTSB learned of that problem, the Army sent out an alert about it and worked to quickly reprogram the units to ensure they would work.
Homendy said “every sign was there that there was a safety risk and the tower was telling you that,” but after the incident, the FAA transferred managers out of the tower instead of admitting they had been warned.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced legislation on Tuesday to require all aircraft operators to use both forms of ADS-B, the technology to broadcast aircraft location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. Most aircraft today are equipped with ADS-B Out equipment, but airlines would need to add the more comprehensive ADS-B In technology to their planes.
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The bill would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Department of Defense aircraft.
Homendy said her agency has been recommending a move like that for decades after several other crashes.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wants to discuss “a few tweaks” but that the bill is “the right approach.” He also said that the Biden administration “was asleep at the wheel” amid dozens of near-misses over Washington.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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