A commercial plane and a military helicopter They have collided in the immediate vicinity of the Ronald Reagan airport, the closest to Washington DC (United States). On the plane from Wichita (Kansas), 67 people were traveling, while three officers flew in the helicopter.
Around 20:48 local time (2:48 in Spain) the collision has occurred. The commercial flight was in the descent phase And it was expected to take land at 9:00 p.m., while the helicopter was developing a night evaluation flight.
The authorities, after carrying out the work of recate, have confirmed that There were no chance of finding survivors. It should be noted that the clash occurred in the immediate vicinity of the Potomac River, which at that time had a temperature of two degrees below zero.
Was there communication with the control tower?
Radio communication between the control tower and the helicopter existed. Specifically, Ronald Reagan airport has revealed A conversation that occurred 30 seconds before the accident in which the plane pilot reported that he had visual contact with the plane in the previous moments. The conversation was like this:
– Controller: PAT2-5, do you have the CRJ in view?
– Controller: Pat 2-5, passes behind the CRJ
– Pilot: Pat 2-5 has the plane in sight, requests visual separation
13 seconds later the fatal accident occurred.
A sound warning could be after the accident
The planes have Two ways to approach an airport: Guided from the control tower or visual approach, something that in the United States is very common. These approaches have a name: tcas. It’s a Sound warning That appears when another ship is very close. However, when the plane is near the airport and is less than 300 meters of altitude, this notice is disconnected.
This is because when they are near the airport, the planes are constant collisions that are not such, therefore they disconnect so as not to distract the pilots. However, in this case It may have been the cause of the collision, Since not having it activated, the pilot would not have noticed the close presence of the helicopter.
The plane at the moment It was at a height of 91 meters According to the latest position data, while the helicopter would be about 122 meters, although the position data is more limited because it is not a commercial aircraft.
The helicopter, strangely that it may seem, was used to making those routes, which was of night evaluation. In fact, It is common for these military helicopters to fly near commercial airplanes They land or take off from this airport. “It is a corridor where helicopters are allowed to fly at low height,” explained the former Federal Administration Investigator (FAA) Jeff Guzzetti.
Experts have reported that Ronald Reagan airport is “An extremely compact space With a high volume of traffic “and for years air controllers have reported on problems related to saturation the airspace.
Trump blames Biden and Obama and believes that he could have avoided
The president of the United States published, in his Truth social network that the accident could have been avoided. “This is a bad situation that It seems that it should have been avoided. It is not good! “Hours later he has spoken in a press conference from the White House in which he has directly blamed the administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden for hiring “workers suffering from severe intellectual disabilities.”
Trump considers aerial drivers They must be people “with the greatest intellect and of superior mentality “and that the policies of their predecessors based on diversity have caused this situation. According to the US president, Biden has reduced the requirements to access these positions” at lower levels than ever. “
The causes will not be known about 30 days
For their part, researchers seeking to clarify the causes of what happened have reported that They hope to have preliminary conclusions within 30 days about what happened. Still They have not recovered black boxes, So they will continue in the area “The necessary time,” said Todd Inman, one of the team members.
“Our intention is to have a preliminary report within 30 days. The final report will be issued once we have completed all our research and determination of facts,” he added.
The objective of the research team is to understand “not only what happened but why” and make changes so that it does not happen again.
The director of the National Transportation Board (NTSB), Jennifer Homendy, said that researchers must “verify” the information, while requested No “specular” on the causes of the accident.