Air traffic controller DC Crash failed to warn the aircraft before killing

An Federal Aviation Administration official said on Thursday that an air traffic controller failed to inform the crew of a commercial aircraft that an army helicopter Washington, Washington, was moving towards the aircraft before the collision in DC, killing 67 people in January.

FAA’s first acceptance of a possible error at the control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was due to the Middle Crash, just before the deadly collision of the National Transport Safety Board.

According to the Washington Post, the authorities testified about a high number of takeoff and landing at the airport, which, in addition to heavy helicopter traffic, motivated air traffic controllers to test security boundaries.

Methods that use the night of the accident were frequent uses to allow the helicopter crew to use their own decisions and skills to avoid other air traffic, which requires the use of jets coming from the south, which is low and leaving the normal flight path and leaving the normal flight path and traveling from the east, the outlet said.

Army helicopter who crashed with commercial aircraft at DC

According to NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendi, 10 minutes before the collision on the Potomac River, the controller of NTSB had communicated with 21 separate planes according to NTSB President Jennifer Homedi, according to NTSB President Jennifer Homedi, responsible for guiding the flights of Black Hawk Hawk Helicopter and American Airlines Jet coming from Wichita in Kansas.

The NTSB investigators were told by the controller – managing helicopter and airliner traffic at a time – that he felt overwhelmed about 15 minutes before the accident, but some of that traffic later died, and he felt more comfortable to manage the workload.

During the hearing, Homendi pressed the FAA officers about the sequence of communication with the arrival of the jet, according to the Washington Post.

“Should the local controller know that there was a helicopter there?” Homendi asked.

The FAA’s Air Traffic Control Branch acting number two ranking officer Nick Fuller replied yes, saying that the controller should have been told to the crew of the airline that the helicopter was using visual separation and “the target was likely to be merged.”

According to the Washington Post, the airport often saw about 80 departure and arrival in an hour, citing FAA email issued by NTSB this week.

On the night of the accident, Clarke Alan, operating manager at the airport tower, was asked on Thursday whether the controller used to use the controller was threatening security.

“They are pushing the line forward,” Alan testified.

The controllers told the investigators that they did not feel the pressure out to maintain with speed, but the FAA managers explained how American Airlines had a tight program that effectively increased traffic. A manager testified for the airline that he had tried to make changes after going to the tower.

In the minutes before the accident, the controller was looking for pilots ready to land on runway 33 to remove the pressure on the main runway. A crew refused and hesitated before the flying pilots from Wichita to American Airlines, according to a transcript released this week, the Washington Post said. This sent them to a round -making route that would bring them directly to the path of Black Hawk, using a route that passed just below the landing path of the aircraft.

Officials said the strategy of managing heavy aircraft traffic is the tower jerm, including the “squez play”, which includes pushing the aircraft Techoff and Landing With minimal isolation.

“It can tax a person, you know, to continuously move, give, give, give, or push, push, push,” Allen testified.

NTSB begins 3-day search hearing on deadly DC plane crash

He said, “A high volume, high complex airport does not have too much immovable property, you have to pursue things,” he said.

The pressure at the airport increased to an air traffic control facility that takes the aircraft to the ground, a manager of the feature, Brian Lehman, testified on Thursday.

Lehman said, “We have many non -standard equipment, which we use to be able to bring a significant amount of airplane to DCA … on a daily basis to work,” Lehman said. “At a certain point, this is too much.”

The aircraft reaching the airport from the south mostly the land on the runway forest, which is 7,200 feet long and is capable of adjusting large airlines at the airport. Runway 33, which is only 5,200 feet long, crosses it at an angle. The runway 33 is available to controllers in the form of relief valves.

After the incident on 29 January, the FAA reduced the arrival rate of the aircraft and said it would a review. The agency said that the current maximum arrival rate at the airport is 30 per hour.

Lehman said he told the investigators that American Airlines packed in a 30 -minute block and discovered a way to avoid the limit on the number of flights every hour.

“No one will stop them,” Lehman said. “So, I don’t know how much this is too much for the American … but it is an eye-to-an eye, that people know what is going on.”

Negen Chandy, a traffic management officer of FAA in Washington district, told the investigators that the airline had only a limited success to exclude its flights to reduce the pressure at the airport.

Eric Silverman, an American Airlines manager, testified on Thursday that the carrier had visited the tower as the journey was revolting with the Kovid -19 epidemic.

“We made changes, where we could,” Silverman said.

Another strategy for traffic management that contributed to the accident was to rely on visual separation, in which helicopters look at airlines and survive.

Allen testified, “Visual separation was used on a daily basis between helicopter operators and commercial traffic in DCA.” “Visual separation was paramount to work to work, which works efficiently for the volume of volume and complexity.”

The controller checked with the helicopter crew to confirm that they could see the jet, but they appeared confused about the message and did not even see the moments at the airline before crashing into it.

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The FAA laid limitations on the use of visual separation after the collision.

Staff According to NTSB investigator Brian Sopper, there has been a problem at the airport since the accident, who said that the latest FAA data shows that while the tower has been assigned 26 controllers, only 19 are available for working.

“Every person who spoke with staffing quoted as an important concern,” Sopper said.