NTSB will give update on a fatal accident between a jet of passengers and the helicopter of the American army

(AP) – On January 29, an American Airlines passenger plane and an army helicopter collided while the plane ready to land in Washington, Ronald Reagan National Airport. both plunged into the Potomac Riverkilling All 67 people on board.

The National Transport Safety Council intends to give another update in the accident on Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators previously said the helicopter May have had inaccurate altitude readings At times before the accident and the crew may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers.

The collision was The most fatal plane crash in the US Since 2001, when a jet has slammed into a neighborhood in New York, immediately after take -off, killing all 260 people on board and five more on the field.

A string of collapses this year with a young lady has almost drawn attention to air travel, which remains overworked in the US on January 31, a medical transport jet collapsed in a neighborhood of Philadelphiakilling seven people. On February 6, A small aircraft aircraft crashed outside the west Alaska, killing 10. On February 17, a Delta plane has collapsed and overturned At landing in Toronto. Two small planes He clasped in Midair in Arizona On February 19, killing two people. And there was a scary moment on February 25 at Chicago when a Southwest Airlines plane and -aborted landing to avoid collapse in another plane crossing the track.

Here’s a look at the accident of January 29:

What happened?

American Airlines Flight 5342 came from Wichita, Kansas, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while approaching to land in a clear night. Nearby, an American army Black Hawk, with three soldiers on board, practice emergency evacuation routes that would be used to eliminate key government officials in an attack or catastrophe.

Investigators believe that the helicopter crew wore nocturnal eyeglasses that would have limited their peripheral vision.

A few minutes before the jet with two engines landing, air traffic controllers asked if they can use a shorter track. The pilots agreed, and the flight tracking sites show that the plane had returned to regulate their approach.

Shortly before the collision, a controller received an alert that the plane and Black Hawk converge and asked the helicopter if he had the plane. The military pilot said yes and asked for the “visual separation” with the jet for the second time – allowing them to fly closer than if the pilots could not see the plane. The controllers approved the request.

About 20 seconds later, the aircraft collided.

Investigate

NTSB has recovered all flight data recorders and removed the wreck of both aircraft from Potomac.

It will take more than a year to obtain the final NTSB report, but officials have provided periodic updates as investigators learn more. They intend to release their preliminary report on Tuesday.

NTSB President Jennifer Homendy told reporters last month that Black Hawk’s cockpit recorder suggested that an incomplete radio transmission could let the crew not hear air traffic by saying, just before the accident, to move behind the jet.

“This transmission was interrupted – it was stepped,” she said at a briefing of February 14, leaving the helicopter crew unable to hear the words “pass behind”, because the key to their microphone was pressed.

The radio altitude of the helicopter was 85 meters of 85 meters at the time of the collision, which would put Black Hawk over its limit of 200 meters (61 meters) for that location.

Cockpit conversations a few minutes before the accident indicated that the crew could not have exact altitude readings, the helicopter pilot calling 300 meters (91 meters), but the instructor’s pilot (122 meters), Homendy said.

“We look at the possibility of bad data,” she said.

That generation of black hawks usually has two types of altimeters: one based on the barometric pressure and the other on the radio frequency signals rejected on the ground. The helicopter pilots are usually based on barometric readings while flying, but the black box of the helicopter captures the radio altitude.

Almost immediately after the accident, President Donald Trump blamed the helicopter flying too high. He also blamed the federal diversity and inclusion efforts, especially in terms of air traffic controllers. When pressed by reportersThe president could not support these statements. A few days later Trump blamed a Air traffic control system “outdated” That he said he should have been replaced years ago.

Army officials said Black Hawk crew was very experienced and familiar with the crowded sky around Washington.

victims

Army identified Black Hawk’s crew as 28 years old Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach from Durham, North Carolina; Personal SGT. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, from Lilburn, Georgia; And the head of mandate 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, from Great Mills, Maryland. O’Hara was the head of the crew, and Streasina and Lobach were pilots.

Among the passengers of the jet counted more Members of the Boston skating club Returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters who followed 2025 USA Figure skating championships in Wichita. A Tribute at Washington gathered $ 1.2 million for the families of the victims of accidents.

Others killed included a group of hunters who returned from a guided journey to Kansas, four members of a local Steamfitters union from the suburbs of Maryland, nine students and parents from Fairfax, Virginia, schools and two Chinese nationals.