Shortly before the collision, the helicopter pilot reported that he was at an altitude of 300 feet, while his instructor pilot indicated 400; Report is based on the last minutes extracted from black boxes
The pilot and the military helicopter instructor in late January communicated different altitude data, says a report presented on Friday (14). A SIKORSKY BLACK HAWK military helicopter and a bombardier CRJ700 aircraft operated by an American Airlines branch fell into the icy potomac river waters, which borders Ronald Reagan airport from the American capital after the collision. In total, 67 people died in the accident.
According to Jennifer Homendy, director of the US National Transport Security Agency, shortly before the collision, the helicopter pilot reported that he was at an altitude of 300 feet, while his instructor pilot indicated 400 feet. The report is based on the last minutes of flight of both devices, according to data extracted from black boxes. “We don’t know why there was a divergence between the two. It’s something the research team is analyzing, ”said Homendy. “At the time of the collision, Black Hawk was at 278 feet.”
“We observed contradictory information in the data,” he insisted. In addition, it mentioned transmission problems between the helicopter and the control tower. In a recording of conversations from the control tower, widespread by the press shortly after the accident, it is possible to hear the instruction given to the helicopter “pass behind the CRJ”. “This does not appear on Black Hawk’s voice recorder,” Homendy explained.
According to her, the passenger plane could hear all the communications that came in and out of the control tower with all other devices, while the helicopter could only accompany those issued by the tower.
