Administrator FAA: "Clearly, something was missed" that led to the collapse of the Washington DC plane

Washington – The federal administrator of the federal aviation, Chris Phyleau, acknowledged on Thursday that “something was missed” in terms of devastating collision between an American Airlines and an army helicopter that killed everyone on board both aircraft.

The National Transport Security Council said that all data showing that it is common for rapid misses and events from Ronald Reagan Washington (DCA) National Airport, were publicly available.

“Between October 2021 and December 2024 there were over 15,000 approaching events between commercial aircraft and helicopters at DCA,” said NTSB president Jennifer Homendy

The accident happened On the night of January 29, when PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 Regional Jet, with 64 people on board, was to land at Reagan. The three helicopter soldiers performed an annual training and night flight control control at the time of collision.

The Rocleau faced on Thursday of harsh questions from the senators about the lack of actions taken by FAA that could have prevented the accident based on the data available to the Agency.

“Something was missed in the DCA accident. I take this seriously. I take this on me,” the robeleau said. “I returned to FAA just two months ago and I care about the national air space and work system. I am dedicated to continue that work and I will continue to review what I mentioned previously about hot points, working closely with NTSB to find out what happened here and to make sure it will never happen again.”

FAA said that now uses you have automatic learning to evaluate all the data that come to show potential problems in the American air space.

The Rochleau also announced that, actually, almost all the aircraft operating around Reagan and Downtown DC must have Aviation Aviation Supervision Technology-with the exception of presidential helicopters or other security-sensitive missions. Helicopters like the one that collapsed on January 29 are now forced to broadcast their position using ADS-B out technology.

The NTSB also said he was looking at the helicopter fleet of the 12th Army Battalion for the installation programming and the equipment failure potential.

Homendy said that in the fleet there are 16 models of Black Hawk Lima, including the helicopter involved in the accident. Eight have stopped transmitting Ads-B once between May and November 2023. Homendy said NTSB does not know why they stopped.

The senators pressed Army Brig. The genus Matthew Braman on the army helicopters operating in the DCA airspace without transmitting ADS-B data, which led to a fiery discussion between the chairman of the commission, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Braman, with Cruz asking the army to issue the memo into the commission in the next 24 hours.

“The army has an August 9, 2024, entitled Ads-B out off out out in the national air space. My staff has requested this memory from you, and my understanding is that your team refused to offer it,” Cruz said. “This is also unacceptable. I want to ask you at this hearing, will you hire to provide this memory to this committee?”

Braman said he would analyze whether the memory can be issued to the committee.

After the hearing on Thursday, Homendy told reporters that the failure of supervision is not only on the face, but also in the army.

The hearing on Thursday also revealed that the false alarms that told the pilots that they were on a collision course with another plane, while approaching Reagan Airport earlier this month, were caused by the Secret Service and Marina testing inappropriately the counter-Drone technology, according to an exchange between Cruz and Rochleau. The test was done on the same spectrum used by the system of avoiding the collision of traffic in the pilot cabin. Cruz said that the Secret Service and Marina were warned not to use the same spectrum before false alarm incidents.

NTSB hopes to complete the Reagan accident investigation, Homendy told Thursday, mentioning that divers are still working to recover any wreck left in the Potomac River.

Ntsb will interview mapping faces about mapping the route around Reagan; Homendy said that there is no “practically no error margin” on the helicopter routes used around the airport.

Earlier this month, NTSB has requested immediate changes To Reagan, saying that the current helicopter routes around the crowded airport “present an intolerable risk for aviation safety”.

The NTSB has recommended to permanently prohibit helicopter operations near Reagan when the 15 and 33 tracks are used and designate an alternative helicopter route. The Secretary of Transport, Sean Duffy, said quickly that the Transport Department will follow the NTSB recommendations.