NTSB to give update on deadly D.C. midair collision investigation today
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to give an update on the midair collision over Washington, D.C. that killed dozens of people in January.
The collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines plane left 67 people dead. It was the first major commercial airline crash in the United States since 2009. The American Airlines flight, which was coming from Wichita, Kansas, was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission. Both fell into the Potomac River after the collision.
Federal investigators have been working to piece together the events that led to the crash. Investigator in charge Brice Banning previously described it as "a complex investigation" with "a lot of pieces" that NTSB members were working to gather.
Wreckage from the plane and helicopter has been recovered. Investigators also recovered black boxes from both aircraft. Black boxes record flight data, including altitude and speed, as well as audio from the flight.
Investigators said in mid-February that it's possible the helicopter crew did not hear instructions from an air traffic controller to pass behind the plane. Seventeen seconds before the collision, a radio transmission from the air traffic control tower directed the helicopter to pass behind the airliner, but because the helicopter's microphone key was pressed down during part of the transmission, they may have not heard the words "pass behind the," NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
The NTSB has determined that the collision likely occurred at an altitude of about 325 feet, which would have put the Black Hawk above its 200-foot limit for the area. Cockpit conversations from a few minutes before the crash indicate conflicting altitude data. The type of Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash typically has two systems for measuring altitude, which may explain the discrepancy.
Investigators believe that the helicopter crew, who the Army has described as highly experienced, were wearing night-vision goggles at the time of the incident.
Full NTSB investigations typically take at least a year.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
11 hours ago
- CBS News
Small plane crash off San Diego coast kills 6 people on board
A small plane carrying six people crashed off the San Diego coast, killing everyone on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, not long after it took off, the FAA said. The plane was returning to Phoenix one day after flying out from Arizona, according to the flight tracking website Searchers found a debris field later Sunday about 5 miles off the coast of Point Loma, a San Diego neighborhood that juts into the Pacific, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The water in the search area is about 200 feet deep. Although the FAA said all six people on board the plane were killed, authorities haven't identified them. The FAA said the plane is owned by vitamin and nutritional supplement maker Optimal Health Systems. But the company based in Pima, Arizona, said in a statement that it sold the plane to a group of private individuals in 2023, meaning the FAA database could be out of date. However, the company's founder, Doug Grant, said in the statement, "We personally know several of the passengers onboard and our sincerest condolences are offered to those affected by the tragedy, all of whom are incredible members of our small community." The FAA referred questions about the plane's ownership to the National Transportation Safety Board, which didn't immediately provide any further details about the crash. San Diego Harbor Police assisted with sonar to help pinpoint the area of the crash, CBS affiliate KFMB-TV reported. The Coast Guard also alerted the San Diego Fire Department Lifeguards about the crash, and lifeguards were able to find an oil sheen and some debris on the water. Any debris initially recovered by lifeguards has been turned over to Coast Guard officials, the fire department said. The pilot told air traffic controllers that he was struggling to maintain his heading and climb as the plane twice turned toward shore before going back out to sea, according to audio posted by and radar data posted by FlightAware. The controller urged the pilot to climb to 4,000 feet after he reported the plane was only about 1,000 feet in the air. The controller directed the pilot to land at a nearby U.S. naval airport on Coronado Island, but the pilot said he was unable to see the airport. A short time later, the pilot repeatedly signaled the "Mayday" distress call before controllers lost radar contact. A man who was out surfing when the plane crashed told NBC 7 in San Diego that he saw the plane come down at an angle, then climb back into the clouds before diving again and crashing into the water. "The next time he came out of the clouds, he went straight into the water. But after I saw this splash, about six seconds later, it was dead silent. I knew that they went in the water, nose first, at a high speed," Tyson Wislofsky said. The Coast Guard said multiple rescue crews had been deployed in the search, including two helicopters and multiple ships. The crash comes weeks after a small Cessna crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in foggy weather and killed six people.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FTAL-lead-image-EMERGENCYEXIT0625-7c5e169571e04144a14046ef2de88d94.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Travel + Leisure
11 hours ago
- Travel + Leisure
What Would Actually Happen If You Tried to Open the Airplane Emergency Door Mid-flight?
The most important thing in the exit row on a plane isn't the extra legroom—it's the emergency door. These doors are strategically located throughout the aircraft so that passengers can easily evacuate, regardless of whether they're in first class or the last row. The Airbus A380—the world's largest commercial aircraft—has 16 emergency doors. That's approximately one for every 50 passengers. While part of the flight attendant safety speech includes pointing out where the nearest emergency doors can be found, it doesn't include the answer to one burning question. What happens if you try to open the emergency door mid-flight? If you ask American Airlines First Officer Steve Scheibner, nothing would happen if you tried to open the door—because you can't open the emergency door mid-flight. Unless you're capable of lifting 25,000 pounds, it's physically impossible. 'Once this door gets pressurized in flight, it's nine pounds per square inch,' says Scheibner, who goes by Captain Steeeve on TikTok where he has more than 380,000 followers. Another pilot-turned-social media sensation explains it further on YouTube: 'We pressurize our aircraft to a lower altitude so that you guys can breathe,' says Pilot PascalKlr. 'The inside pressure pushes the door in its frame.' Scientists liken it to how a drain plug works. Given the small size of sink and bath drains, it takes a substantial amount of effort to pick them up. Also, most emergency exit doors on planes open inwards. Still, physics isn't the only thing keeping emergency doors closed during flights. On most commercial aircraft, all cabin doors automatically lock once the plane has reached a certain speed. According to Scheibner, it's approximately 80 knots (92 miles per hour). They can't be manually unlocked until the plane slows down again. Obviously, these locks weren't customary back in 1971 when the infamous 'D.B. Cooper' parachuted out of a Boeing 727's rear door with $200,000 in cash somewhere over southeastern Washington. In fact, because hijacking passenger planes was common in the late '60s and early '70s, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) amended their safety regulations in 1972 and started requiring large passenger aircraft exits to be designed so that they can't be opened during flight. Exit sign in an airplane. Margot Cavin/Travel + Leisure Even though it's not possible to open an emergency door mid-flight, people have tried. In fact, every year passengers make headlines for trying to do so. A few weeks ago, an All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Houston was diverted to Seattle after an unruly passenger kept trying to open the emergency doors. Cabin crew and fellow passengers managed to restrain him using zip ties. Upon landing in Seattle, the passenger was handed over to the local police and FBI. And when an American Airlines passenger on a flight from Albuquerque to Chicago tried to open an emergency door 20 minutes into their flight last year, the plane returned to Albuquerque where law enforcement was waiting. If the plane isn't far from its final destination, it will usually try to land there. That's what happened on another American Airlines flight in 2024 when a passenger flying from Milwaukee to Dallas attempted to open an emergency door mid-flight. A flight attendant was injured in the process, and the man was charged with a federal crime. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. At the very least, trying to open an emergency door mid-flight is a great way to get yourself on the dreaded no-fly list. While most passengers who try to open emergency doors fail, at least one appears to have succeeded. In 2023, a passenger on an Asiana flight about to land in Daegu, South Korea allegedly opened the emergency door he was sitting next to. The plane was more than 700 feet off the ground at the time. While the plane was able to safely land, and no one was seriously injured, 12 people went to the hospital and were treated for hyperventilation. 'The wind was stinging my legs and hitting my face so hard I couldn't even breathe properly,' the passenger sitting next to him recalled in an interview with CNN. Asiana immediately launched an investigation to see how the door was able to be opened. It also issued a statement saying it would stop selling certain exit row seats on its Airbus A321-200 aircraft. But this doesn't exactly mean that sitting next to an emergency door is dangerous. On the contrary, some experts say the exit row boasts the safest seats on the plane. 'If there was a seat that was safer, being close to an emergency exit increases the chance of getting out quicker,' Cary Grant, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's College of Aviation, previously told T+L.
CNN
12 hours ago
- CNN
6 people killed in crash of small aircraft off San Diego, FAA says
Air travel safety Airplane crashes Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow Six people were killed when a small plane crashed into the ocean off San Diego on Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The final moments before the twin-engine Cessna crash – which triggered a major search of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego – are captured in an air traffic control audio recording from 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' the pilot of the Cessna 414 can be heard shouting on the recording only five minutes after taking off from San Diego International Airport. The pilot and five passengers were killed when the plane crashed into the water 'under unknown circumstances,' the FAA told CNN. The Coast Guard is searching a debris field. An urgent exchange is heard on the audiotape as the pilot tells an air traffic controller he is struggling to maintain a heading. 'What seems to be the issue?' the air traffic controller can be heard asking 'Just struggling right now to maintain heading … and climb,' the pilot replied. The controller from the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control advised the pilot to land at nearby Naval Air Station North Island. Flight tracking data shows the plane taking off at 12:25 p.m. local time bound for Phoenix. In the five minutes that followed, the plane reached a maximum altitude of only 2,100 feet before making two turns to the left, according to open-source data from ADS-B Exchange. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash. Weather conditions at the time of the crash were not particularly poor. Visibility was 10 miles and winds were at about 8 mph from the west-northwest, with no gusts. There was a thick, overcast cloud layer at around 1500 feet, according to data from nearby airports analyzed by CNN meteorologists. This is a developing story and will be updated.
