Black Hawk struggled to blew Before Washington Crash | Company Business News

(Bloomberg) – Safety investigators who have the center of the center of the center of the US Airlines Group Inc. -Regional ray and an US Army black Hawk near Washington investigated, found that a key instrument could show in the helicopter inaccurate highlight that could make the pilots think they were flying lower than they were. The US National Transport Safety Council kicked off a three -day trial on Wednesday to surrender in the investigation into the accident that killed 67 people. According to the agency, the so -called barometric height of the Black Hawk, which determines height by measuring changes in air pressure, displayed the helicopter at 100 feet (30 meters) below the American Airlines Jet at the time of the accident. However, it is unclear whether the helicopter staff checked the data against other devices such as the radio eye meter, which determines the height by the time it takes for radio waves to measure the ground and back to the plane. “There is a possibility that what the crew saw was very different from what was the real height,” NTSB chairman Jennifer Homendy told reporters during a break in the trial. She also said that in this case, some showed up on pilot errors very quickly, and although it is still something the agency is looking at, “it is possible that there was no pilot error here.” She said the NTSB is considering whether it should release any urgent security recommendations on the high -rate issue before the agency explains its final report, adding that she has so far not been satisfied with the military’s answers about how they would address the problem. Documents released from the NTSB’s investigation show a typical rushed night in the airspace over Washington area, with controllers communicating with a steady stream of commercial jets, along with military helicopters and an air ambulance. “He piled up tonight,” the instructor on the doomed Black Hawk noted to the pilot he instructed, according to the helicopter’s Cockpit vote. Kylene Lewis, a US Army representative, said there is no official policy on which heights should use or whether they should compare data on devices. She also said the army pilots are supposed to check their barometric altimeters before flights and as long as they are within an error margin of 70 feet, they are considered suitable for use. The NTSB has previously said that it has looked as to whether the helicopter may have received incorrect height readings, but this is the first time the agency confirmed findings at the front. As part of their investigation, investigators tested three other black falcons from the same model Was-Sikorsky UH-60L and from the same army battalion as the accident helicopter. They found when they flew the plane over the tide section of the Potomac River where the accident occurred, their barometric altimeters showed that they were 80 to 130 feet lower than their actual height above sea level. The Midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which was the worst US Civil Aviation in decades, has caused renewed concerns about aviation safety and led to a suppression of helicopter flights near the airport. It also helped to help the support for major upgrades to the country’s outdated air traffic system for the country. The public sessions dig into the equipment on the Black Hawk helicopter, the overcrowded air space and training and procedures for air traffic and procedures at the hub. There are often multiple factors that lead to a tragedy such as January’s Midair collision. The Army Black Hawk, with a three-person staff on a training mission, flies above a 200-foot limit imposed on helicopters in the area. Investigators also found that the pilots missed a key instruction of air traffic controllers to “pass” the US CRJ-700 regional jet. In addition, the army pilots also probably wore glasses of night vision, which could harm the peripheral vision. The helicopter also did not broadcast its position using a technology known as ADS-B Out, which would help provide air traffic controllers and other aircraft more precise information about the location. The NTSB previously said it was unclear whether the crew of the Black Hawk deliberately eliminated ADS-B or that there was another problem with their equipment. The helicopter did not transfer the location data in the two years before the accident, Homendy said. Eight other Black Hawk helicopters from the same army fleet stopped at some point between May and November 2023 to transfer data, even when ADS-B was eliminated, she told lawmakers in March. The accident also drew attention to the infamous airspace near Reagan National Airport – a favorite of tourists, lawmakers and power brokers thanks to the proximity to the US capital. It boasts the country’s most active runway and runs commercial aircraft in airspace with other civil and military aircraft, including helicopters. Only a few months after the collision of the Midair, two flights to Reagan were forced to abort the landings in May due to a nearby US Army Black Hawk helicopter traveling to the Pentagon. The NTSB has identified more than 15,000 cases since October 2021 in which commercial aircraft and helicopters have come within an unsafe distance. This includes 85 times when aircraft are separated with less than 1,500 feet laterally and less than 200 feet. The captain of the plane who ended up immediately before the accident told accident investigators that he had rejected a request from the controllers to land at the airport’s less used sloping runway after discussing it with his first officer, who was nervous to handle the landing. But he heard the doomed American jet behind him accept the command. “The controller looked extraordinarily busy, which caught my attention, that he looked a little task saturated, but it is not uncommon for them to be really busy,” says the pilot, whose name is re -re -set. “It caught my attention because he looked a little … overload, let’s put it that way.” -With help from Julie Johnsson and Mary Schlangenstein. (Updates with additional details of hearing the fourth paragraph.) More stories like these are available on Bloomberg.com © 2025 Bloomberg LP