Missteps, Equipment Problems and a Common but Risky Practice Led to a Fatal Crash
As they flew south along the Potomac River on the gusty night of Jan. 29, the crew aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter attempted to execute a common aviation practice. It would play a role in ending their lives.
Shortly after the Black Hawk passed over Washington's most famous array of cherry trees, an air traffic controller at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport alerted the crew to a regional passenger jet in its vicinity. The crew acknowledged seeing traffic nearby.
One of the pilots then asked for permission to employ a practice called 'visual separation.' That allows a pilot to take control of navigating around other aircraft, rather than relying on the controller for guidance.
'Visual separation approved,' the controller replied.
The request to fly under those rules is granted routinely in airspace overseen by controllers. Most of the time, visual separation is executed without note. But when mishandled, it can also create a deadly risk — one that aviation experts have warned about for years.
On Jan. 29, the Black Hawk crew did not execute visual separation effectively. The pilots either did not detect the specific passenger jet the controller had flagged, or could not pivot to a safer position. Instead, one second before 8:48 p.m., the helicopter slammed into American Airlines Flight 5342, which was carrying 64 people to Washington from Wichita, Kan., killing everyone aboard both aircraft in a fiery explosion that lit the night sky over the river.
One error did not cause the worst domestic crash in the United States in nearly a quarter-century. Modern aviation is designed to have redundancies and safeguards that prevent a misstep, or even several missteps, from being catastrophic. On Jan. 29, that system collapsed.
Hillcrest
Heights
MARYLAND
Plane path
WASHINGTON
Blue Plains
Last recorded
locations
Helicopter path
313 feet
278 feet
Reagan National Airport
Plane was
headed to
Runway 33
Potomac River
Control
tower
VIRGINIA
Aurora
Highlands
MARYLAND
Plane path
WASHINGTON
Last recorded
locations
Blue Plains
Helicopter path
313 feet
Potomac River
278 feet
Plane was
headed to
Runway 33
Reagan National Airport
Control
tower
VIRGINIA
Aurora
Highlands
WASHINGTON
Plane path
Last recorded
locations
Helicopter path
Potomac
River
313 feet
278 feet
Reagan National Airport
Control
tower
Plane was
headed to
Runway 33
VIRGINIA
Sources: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Report; Flight data by Flightradar24 (American Airlines jet) and ADS-B Exchange (Army helicopter); aerial image by Google Earth Studio with data from SIO, NOAA, and U.S. Navy.
By The New York Times
At an altitude of 200 feet within the designated route, helicopters fly at 75 feet below airplanes approaching Runway 33. This vertical separation decreases if helicopters are farther from the eastern bank of the river.
800
feet
Flight 5342's last
recorded position
600
400
MARGIN
Safe approach area
200
Helicopter
route
Runway 33
Potomac River
¼ mile
At an altitude of 200 feet within the designated route, helicopters fly at 75 feet below airplanes approaching Runway 33. This vertical separation decreases if helicopters are farther from the eastern bank of the river.
1,000
feet
800
600
Safe approach area
400
MARGIN
200
Helicopter
route
Flight 5342's last
recorded position
Potomac River
¼ mile
About ½ mile
to Runway 33
Source: Flightradar24 and FAA
By The New York Times
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