The Pentagon’s probe of a mid-air crash could be influenced by questions about helicopter’s path

The Pentagon is Investigating the Decay of an Army Helicopter and a P-Boat from a Low-Altitude Airborne Object in D.C.

Pete Hegseth said the military is investigating the crash between an army helicopter and a plane in D.C.

There have been 28 bodies recovered so far. There were 84 people on the regional jet and three people on the helicopter.

In a video statement released Thursday on social media, Hegseth said, “The Army unit involved, was Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir” and that it had been carrying out “an annual proficiency training flight.”

Hegseth said the crew was experienced and had night vision goggles, even though Trump had said the pilots of the helicopter were to blame.

“Initial indications suggest this may have been a checkride, or periodic evaluation by an experienced instructor pilot of a less experienced pilot,” said Brad Bowman, a military analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Black Hawk pilot.

Defense officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that a male pilot and female co-pilot were on board the Black Hawk, along with a flight crew member. The instructor pilot had over 1,000 hours of flight time. The co-pilot had an average of 500 hours. The Pentagon said it was in the process of notifying next of kin of those on board, though it had not yet released their names.

Officials also tell NPR that the Black Hawk was supposed to be flying at a maximum of 200 feet, though sources say it was flying at least 100 feet higher. The people asked to not be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

“There is a low, prescribed altitude for the helicopter to fly at in that location on the route,” Bowman said, “to ensure sufficient and safe distance between the helicopter and aircraft landing or taking off from Reagan. If the helicopter was above the prescribed altitude, that could be a leading cause of the collision. That will be a key focus of the investigation.”

The investigators anticipate being able to determine if the aircraft was at the right altitude or in the corridor at the time of the incident.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it has not yet recovered the so-called black boxes from the plane — the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Federal safety investigators believe the Black Hawk helicopter had its own recording devices, which they hope will provide clues about the cause of the crash.

A few minutes before arrival, air traffic control asked the American Airlines flight if it could land on runway 33, a shorter runway. Apparently the pilots switched runways during their approach. Some have wondered whether this change in flight path could have caught the Black Hawk off guard.

The Pentagon should not underestimate the importance of human error in aviation: After 16 years, a military helicopter collided with a jet in Washington DC

Eighty percent of aviation accidents worldwide can be attributed to human error, and that is a prime candidate in this case, Marco Chan, a former pilot who now heads pilot programs at Buckinghamshire New University, told WIRED.

“Perhaps safety protocols, human factors were at play,” he says. I don’t like to draw conclusions early on. The passenger number is bouncing back, but I don’t believe that the workforce has caught up in every aspect of aviation.

Air traffic control asked the helicopter if it had seen the aircraft, and was told to “pass behind the CRJ,” which would have had the right of way unless the Black Hawk was on an urgent military mission. It is not known if the helicopter responded.

Military flights sometimes operate on different radio frequencies than passenger flights, so the passenger jet’s crew may not have heard the tower radioing the Black Hawk. If more than one party on the same channel is talking, others won’t hear the rest of the conversation.

The helicopter may have taken off from a military base near the airport. In a grainy video from the Kennedy Center, a smaller light, presumably the helicopter, can be seen overtaking the brighter light of the plane, both of them flying low to the ground. The two collide in a huge explosion, splitting into burning fragments.

On Wednesday evening, a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided with the tail of a Bombardier CRJ-700 jet coming in for landing at Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. Officials say no one on board either the military helicopter or the commercial airliner, operated by the regional airline PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, survived the crash. It is the deadliest US commercial airline crash in 16 years.

The military helicopter and the passenger airplane plunged into the river in Washington DC after colliding in midair last night, the first major US air crash in 16 years.

On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump appeared to place the blame for a midair collision that killed 67 people on the previous administration’s approach to hiring aviation professionals. But experts and investigators involved with the crash, which also involved a military helicopter, say the next few weeks will see investigators pore over every element of the crash, and the moments leading up to it, to determine the causes.

“You need to give us time,” Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a press conference Thursday. The NTSB is an independent US federal watchdog agency that is leading the investigation into the crash. She said that they have data and large amounts of information. We need to verify the information.

During the White House briefings Thursday morning, Trump pointed to a program in his first administration that was meant to expand the talent pool for the Federal Aviation Administration to individuals with disabilities. There was no proof, he admitted, that the crash was linked to the FAA’s attempts to improve diversity in its workforce. But he made the connection, he said, “because I have common sense and unfortunately some people don’t.”

Inman said that at least seven working groups would focus on different elements of the flight, made up of federal investigators as well as representatives from the military, aircraft manufacturers and organizations representing aviation professionals.

An operations group will look into the history of the accident and the crew involved. Another group will focus on the body of the aircraft, examining the wreckage and accident scenes to determine what course the aircraft traveled before the collision, including the altitude. There is more than one involved in the engines. They will look at the onboard pneumatic systems, as well as flight control instruments. A group will look specifically at the role of air traffic control, using recordings and sensor data to determine how professionals at National Airport reacted to the incident. Another will examine the reactions of first responders, and another will examine the helicopter in particular. The group will focus on what role crew fatigue, workload, medication, equipment, and training might have played in the collision.